FundFire features MPI research using MPI Stylus Pro to show how Princeton’s unusually low U.S. equity exposure contributed to its recent underperformance, raising broader questions about private-market-heavy endowment portfolios.
FundFire – Princeton’s Return Slowdown Adds Fuel to Endowments’ Alts Concerns (subscription required)
In his FundFire article, Sabiq Shahidullah draws on MPI’s quantitative analysis, “Solving the Biggest Puzzle of the 2024 Endowment Season,“ to provide transparency into Michigan State’s top-performing endowment, given the limited information from the school’s public disclosures and a CIO interview. He quotes MPI’s analysis and uses its findings throughout the piece: “A defining feature of MSU’s portfolio is its focus on tech stocks, which was the primary driver of returns, said Michael Markov, co-founder and chairman of Markov Processes. The endowment’s tech exposure comes not only through direct equity holdings, but also tech-focused hedge fund strategies and private equity and venture capital funds. MSU and Brown University share a similar tech-forward portfolio strategy, although MSU has an even stronger tech bias, Markov added.” (FundFire subscription required)
Great to share insights and analyses of elite endowments with FundFire for their story US Stocks, Venture Capital Swayed Ivy Returns in FY24 by Sabiq Shahidullah (subscription required).
Our co-founder and CEO Michael Markov is quoted alongside FEG Investment Advisors CIO Gregory Dowling, CFA, CAIA and Rob Appling of Wilshire, as well as statements from Ivy endowment leaders Kim Lew of Columbia University, Jane Dietze of Brown University, Narv Narvekar of Harvard University and Matt Mendelsohn of Yale University.
Visit the MPI Transparency Lab, our free resource providing data and investment analysis on opaque institutional portfolios, now updated with elite endowment returns and analyses through fiscal ’24: MPI Transparency Lab
“If I need cash, I’m probably going to sell out parts of my U.S. equity portfolio, because it’s had such a great run. Interest rates are high, which means that I’m getting good yields from my fixed income portfolio.” — Jeff Schwartz, President at MPI.
FundFire’s top headline today Ivy Endowments Face Liquidity Constraints amid PE Slump — features Jeff’s comments and MPI’s latest research A Private Equity Liquidity Squeeze By Any Other Name. Sabiq Shahidullah’s story covers a lot of important concepts in endowment investing and private markets; check it out if you’re a subscriber.
“Style analysis is a useful tool that can illuminate how a portfolio operates if people understand how to use it, which Markov and his employees do, Sharpe said in an interview. “I would pay serious attention to the results they produce,” he said.” Justin Mitchell quotes Nobel-prize winner in Economics William Sharpe in his article.
In this article, FundFire’s Justin Mitchell uses MPI’s FY2023 intra-year estimates of pension performance in his in-depth analysis of impact of private assets on pension returns.
“Public pensions with sizable allocations to private equity tended to weather the last year’s market volatility better than their peers, but that could change in coming months, according to new projections from a top data analytics firm. Markov Processes International’s new “transparency lab” analyzes the publicly reported returns of institutional investors to provide a better understanding of what the actual holdings are.”
FundFire cites MPI’s analysis of Duke University endowment’s 2021 annual returns, which estimates Duke’s position in Coinbase at approximately $1.3 billion based only on annual endowment returns using proprietary methodology. (FundFire subscription required)