Large Public Pension Funds see 6.2% Q3 Asset Hike
The Census Bureau said in a research report that the Q3 showing compares to a 6.2% decline for the previous quarter.
According to the Census Bureau report, corporate stocks showed a quarterly increase of 9.8%, from $727.2 billion in the second quarter of 2010 to $798.3 billion in the third quarter of 2010. However, corporate stocks demonstrated a yearly decrease of 2.9%, falling from $822.4 billion in the third quarter of 2009 and showing the first year-to-year decline since 2009:Q3. Corporate stocks comprised just under a third (32% for 2010:Q3) of the total cash and security holdings of major public-employee retirement systems.
Meanwhile, corporate bonds showed the first quarter-to-quarter increase since 2009:Q3, rising 3.2% from $414.1 billion in the second quarter of 2010 to $427.3 billion in the third quarter of 2010. However, corporate bonds had the first year-to-year decrease since 2009:Q3, falling 1.4% from $433.3 billion in the same quarter one year ago (2009:Q3). Corporate bonds comprised just over a sixth (17.1% for 2010:Q3) of the total cash and security holdings of major public-employee retirement systems.
Census Bureau data showed international securities reached the highest level in over two years (since 2008:Q2), rising 13.9% from $396.5 billion in the second quarter of 2010 to $451.6 billion in the third quarter of 2010. They showed a year-to-year increase for the fourth consecutive quarter, rising 22.2% from $369.6 billion in the same quarter one year ago (2009:Q3). International securities comprised 18.1% of the total cash and security holdings of major public-employee retirement systems for 2010:Q3. This was the highest percentage distribution for international securities since the beginning of this investment category’s data collection eight years ago, starting with the fourth quarter of 2002.
Finally, the Census Bureau report showed that employee and government contributions totaled $24.7 billion in the third quarter of 2010, a decrease of 6.8% from $26.5 billion last year (2009:Q3). Employee contributions comprised 28.4% ($7 billion) of the total contributions, and government contributions comprised 71.6% ($17.7 billion) of the total contributions in the third quarter of 2010.
The survey consists of a panel of 100 retirement systems, which comprise 89.4% of financial activity among such entities, based on the 2007 Census of Governments. More information about the Census Bureau data is in an information sheet and at http://www.census.gov/govs/qpr/ .