Harvard endowment shuns U.S. stocks
Posted
Nov 11 2007, 06:49 PM
by
Jon Markman
Rating:
If you've ever wondered how those big university endowments invest their money, here's your chance.
Harvard University's endowment, which recorded a sterling 23% return on its $34 billion portfolio through the middle of this year, just filed a report of its second-quarter holdings to the Securities and Exchange commission, as required by law.
The filing shows that Harvard is not putting much of its money on individual stocks, and has shied far away from the United States. Of its top 10 holdings, only two contain shares of companies and just one of those, Weyerhaeuser is based in America. Its top holding is a nearly half-billion-dollar position in the iShares Emerging Markets exchange traded fund, while its next four largest holdings are ETFs focused on Brazil, South Korea, Mexico and South Africa.
It's interesting to note that Harvard's biggest new add of the second quarter was in an ETF focused on the Taiwan market. And its biggest subtraction was from the ETF focused on the U.S. small caps held in the Russell 2000 index.
That may seem like a risky set of plays for an endowment, but I guess you can't argue with success. Harvard has long considered to be the gold standard among its peers.
(Full disclosure: I have a position in EZA).
