LONDON – A growing proportion of investors say they plan to decrease the size of hedge fund allocations in their portfolios, survey results from data provider Preqin showed on Wednesday, amid this year’s lackluster average returns.
More than a third, 35%, told the data provider they would shrink the proportion of hedge funds in their portfolios by up 10 percentage points this year from last, according to Preqin’s report based on responses from 185 institutional investors.
Hedge funds returned an estimated 6% for the year to June 30, the report said, underperforming some benchmarks. Whereas, MSCI’s 47-country world stock index, rose roughly 11% during this time frame. The S&P 500 also soared 15% in the same period, mainly due to a handful of mega-cap stocks such as Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA).
Hedge funds have performed in line with expectations, survey respondents said. Two-thirds anticipated they’d see 6% and 12% returns over the longer term, while a smaller percentage were looking for a 14%-to-16% return on investment and higher, Preqin’s report said.
Just under half of investors said they would not change their portfolios. Of those who do plan on allocating more to hedge funds, 68% are looking to defer those decisions until 2025.
Investors cared more about risk-adjusted returns, or that performance should be relative to how much risk the hedge fund took, Preqin’s report said.
While 43% of those polled said hedge funds should deliver high risk-adjusted returns, 16% put more emphasis on the absolute performance number reported.
Stock market volatility, the higher interest rate environment, and rocky currency markets were among the investors’ top worries.
Survey respondents said that investors like hedge funds because they add diversification to portfolios.
The hedge fund strategies favored by survey respondents to present the most opportunity next year were stock and corporate bond trading hedge funds, the report said.
(Source: Reuters)
Mary Lee is a freelance writer and journalist based in Toronto, Canada. She holds an M.S. degree in business and economic journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York and a certificate in digital marketing from the University of Toronto.
