Nonprofit and Other Institutional Investors Optimistic for 2014, Survey Finds

Nonprofit and other institutional investors anticipate 7 percent growth in their assets this year, Pensions & Investments writes, citing a new Commonfund report.

Commonfund’s 2014 Investor Outlook Survey includes responses from 200 groups with combined assets of $163-billion that attended the institutional fund manager’s annual forum earlier this week in Florida. Though the picture was slightly less rosy than last year, when the poll found a median forecast return of 8 percent, Keith Luke of Commonfund’s securities subsidiary said it still represented “a very positive outlook.”

Noting last year’s 32-percent return from the S&P 500, Mr. Luke said, “I think everyone realized markets don’t go up in straight lines.”

The survey found investors are significantly less worried than they were last year about a budget impasse in Washington or a European Union economic crisis.