The value of the endowment rose to $21 billion, an increase of $2.8 billion, the Princeton, New Jersey-based school said Friday in a statement on its website. The university had an annual average return of 10.5 percent over the past 10 years, it said.

Princeton trails only Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which had a 20.2 percent gain in fiscal 2014. Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Harvard University, which has the largest endowment at $36.4 billion, had the lowest return at 15.4 percent. Only Cornell University has yet to release results among the eight Northeastern U.S. schools that make up the Ivy League.

The median return for large endowments and foundations this year is 16.7 percent, according to Wilshire Trust Universe Comparison Service. The success of public equity bolstered the returns, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained more than 20 percent in the year ended June 30.