June 2026 Newsletter
June 3, 2026
Dear Valued Client:
“I would like to invest in some young companies...”
As May gives way to June, and the summer season officially settles into the San Juan Mountains, the Durango trails are buzzing with hikers and mountain bikers capitalizing on the longer days. Just as our community shifts into a higher gear for the summer months, the financial markets are experiencing their own wave of acceleration. Following a robust market rebound this spring, led by a historic resurgence in technology and infrastructure, the markets continue to offer real opportunity.
There is a unique energy to this time of year that carries over into how we view your portfolio heading into the second half of 2026. As Durango returns to full stride, our focus remains exactly the same. We continue to keep a disciplined eye on the horizon, ensuring you are positioned to capture long-term growth opportunities while maintaining sound risk management principles.
We want to take a moment this month to highlight a fund that plays a role in many of your portfolios — the Private Shares Fund (PIIVX). At its core, the fund provides exposure to a diversified portfolio of venture capital investments. It specifically targets late-stage, venture-backed companies that are utilizing private capital to scale their operations prior to an initial public offering. Most clients that hold this fund have an allocation between 1% to 3% in their total portfolios. Think of it as a carefully considered window into a world that has historically been accessible only to institutional investors: private companies that are on a path toward going public. After several quieter years, private markets are showing meaningful signs of life. Initial Public Offering (IPO) activity is picking up, and capital markets appear increasingly receptive to new offerings. That creates potential opportunities, and possibly some exciting developments, for investors who hold this fund.
SpaceX remains the largest holding of the fund and continues to be one of the most closely watched names set to go public, driven by its leadership in commercial space transportation and satellite communications. Beyond SpaceX, the portfolio maintains strategic positions across a diverse range of innovative businesses within the software, fintech, artificial intelligence, defense technology, and aerospace sectors. Several of these companies are actively considering or have already filed for public offerings. On June 2nd, we participated in an institutional briefing directly with the management team of the fund to discuss portfolio developments, valuations, and future outlooks. During this webcast, management indicated that the fund could experience a valuation increase of 5% to 10% once SpaceX begins trading on the open market, which is anticipated to be around June 12th. Recent headlines indicate that SpaceX is targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion.
Much like the venture-backed businesses preparing for an initial public offering, the public small-cap and micro-cap companies within the managed portfolio offer exposure to dynamic, early-stage corporate growth. This year, these small-cap and micro-cap positions have delivered exceptional results. Specifically, the Royce Small-Cap Trust (RVT) and the Royce Micro-Cap Trust (RMT), which are both small-cap focused closed-end funds invested in smaller companies with robust fundamentals, are up 17.4 percent and 36.9 percent, respectively, year to date. Both of these funds also recently increased their quarterly dividends. These investments are performing very well because of strong earnings growth and resilience within this asset class, particularly across the industrials, financial services, and information technology sectors. The disciplined focus of these funds on high-quality smaller companies selling at attractive valuations continues to provide significant upside for the total portfolio.
The total managed portfolio is up 9.2% year to date after management fees, as shown in the graph below. The equity side of the portfolio is up 13.9% year to date, and the income portfolio is up 4.6% year to date. The Domestic Equity Portfolio is up 13.1%, which was surpassed by the Alternative Equity portfolio, which is up 14.7%.
The broader economy continues to demonstrate resilience, even as valuations in certain corners of the market remain elevated. Solid economic data is keeping inflation sticky, meaning the Federal Reserve's newly expected leadership is under pressure to keep interest rates higher for longer.
We are staying selective, favoring companies with strong balance sheets, durable competitive advantages, and real pricing power. Our fixed-income strategy, using our 10-year Certificate of Deposit and bond ladder, continues to do exactly what it is designed to do: provide dependable income and help smooth out portfolio volatility when markets get choppy. It is not the flashiest component of your portfolio, but it is often the most reassuring.
Major life transitions, family milestones, and even the simple passage of time can leave estate plans outdated. We encourage clients to periodically conduct a comprehensive audit of primary and contingent beneficiary designations on all investment, retirement, and insurance accounts. Because beneficiary designations supersede instructions left in a traditional will, keeping them accurate is vital. If you need to update your beneficiaries on your Schwab accounts, please call the office, and Carly can assist you. Additionally, now is an excellent time to ensure your digital estate—passwords, multi-factor authentication details, and secure portals—are organized and accessible to your trusted legacy contacts. Lastly, if it has been five years or more since reviewing your will documents, we encourage you to revisit those documents to make sure they still align with your wishes.
Mid-year is a wonderful time to pause and take stock, not just of market conditions, but of your own financial picture. If you would like to schedule a portfolio review or talk through retirement planning, investment strategy, or anything else on your mind, we would love to hear from you. Please do not hesitate to call the office at (970) 403-1234. As always, thank you for the trust you place in us. It is a responsibility we take seriously and a relationship we genuinely value.
With warm regards,
Intelligent Investment Management, LLP
