By: Regina Wright ~Guest Writer~
The D’Artagnan Capital Fund (DCF) is a student run investment fund that manages $2.26 million of Xavier University’s endowment.
The DCF is an opportunity fund that seeks to take advantage of finding inefficiencies in the market.
The Department of Finance in the Williams College of Business proposed the creation of a student-run investment fund in 2008.
The DCF includes 26 members total. Senior Stefan Modic is an analyst for the Healthcare Sector of the DCF.
“Our performance is benchmarked against the Standard and Poor (S&P) 500. Our prospects states that our exposure is limited to large-cap equities,” Modic said.
The DCF currently manages a portfolio of 42 companies. The DCF is a two-part course, Finance 490: Portfolio Management I and Finance 492: Portfolio Management II. These courses are upper-level finance courses but are not limited to finance majors.
Of the 26 members, 18 are in Finance 490 and eight are in Finance 492. With an initial $500,000, the Investment Advisory Committee of the Board of Trustees (IAC) approved the creation of the Undergraduate Equity Fund in Dec. 2008. In Oct. 2009 IAC provided an additional $500,000 to be managed in the equity fund.
“The DCF was created out of an initiative by Xavier University to develop programs that would enhance the national visibility of the university while giving students an extraordinary opportunity to manage real money in a professional manner,” Modic said.
The primary goal of the DCF is to outperform its benchmark, the S&P 500, on a risk-adjusted basis.
“Last year was the DCF’s first time accomplishing this goal. We not only beat our benchmark, but also had the best performance of the other four large-cap equity managers in Xavier’s long-term portfolio,” Modic said.
The DCF benefits Xavier by ensuring the possibility for high endowment returns. The main goal, to grow the portion of the endowment, is performing a critical role of ensuring that Xavier will have necessary funds in the future.
Funds are utilized critically towards scholarships, financial air, faculty salaries and grounds upkeep.
“The D’Artagnan Capital Fund is continuing the strong performance from the last year and is continuing to beat the S&P 500 by 1.84 percent,” Modic said. “Also, year-to-date, the fund performed in the top five percentile of Morningstar’s large-cap manager universe.”
To learn more about the D’Artagnan Capital Fund, visit http://www.xavier.edu/williams/equity-fund/.
