PERS investment committee reviews volatile markets, posts fiscal‑year gains and hears presentations from quantitative and value managers

The Public Employees Retirement System of Mississippi’s Investment Committee met to review market drivers, quarterly performance and hear updates from several global equity managers.

Committee staff and advisors opened with a market overview that cited geopolitical developments—including the conflict in the Middle East—and energy price swings as the principal drivers of volatility during the quarter. Staff reported a fiscal‑year return of about 7.56% through the end of March and said market performance rebounded sharply in April; total fund value was reported at approximately $37.2 billion at the end of March, down roughly $405 million from the prior quarter after market losses and outflows.

Representatives from several managers presented how their strategies responded to the market environment. PIM (PIM Quantitative Solutions) described its global all‑cap quantitative mandate, saying the product has about 350–400 holdings and emphasizing recent model work to incorporate linkage factors (customer/supplier networks and analyst‑defined peer groups) to capture cross‑company information flows. PIM representatives highlighted that the strategy was performing ahead of its benchmark since inception and that diversification across regions and factors helped the portfolio in the recent volatile stretch.

Harding Loevner overviewed a long‑term growth approach and acknowledged it had faced style headwinds in some recent periods, but said process improvements and risk tools were being adopted to improve stock selection and valuation focus. Aadian Global explained its systematic stock‑selection process, noting trailing‑12‑month excess returns from its model and that April month‑to‑date gains were driven by semiconductors and select US technology and consumer names. A separate value manager noted the portfolio trades at a meaningful valuation discount (forward P/E roughly 10.4) versus the benchmark and said value and certain commodity‑exposed markets outperformed in March when energy rallied.

Manager Q&A covered factor attribution (the managers cited value, quality and technicals as meaningful contributors), the role of concentration in US large caps and how systematic models are being enhanced to capture broader linkages across companies. Several managers said they had not materially changed portfolio positioning after the March drawdown and stressed risk controls in place to limit country or sector concentration.

The committee also heard brief staffing notices from some managers (promotions and departures at select firms). The committee adjourned after completion of the presentations and scheduled follow‑up items on manager monitoring and any contractual updates as needed.

Next steps: staff will continue manager oversight, follow up on flagged manager staffing changes and provide updates to the committee on performance attribution and any recommended manager actions.