Minnesota Has $19M Invested In Firearms Manufacturers
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The State of Minnesota has invested $19.2 million into securities of companies that manufacture or sell firearms and ammunition.
That's according to figures compiled by the State Board of Investment at the request of WCCO-TV.
The investments are part of the state's $76 billion portfolio and includes the investments in firearms manufacturing companies, "and could represent a very small percentage of a company's business," according to the Board.
The state's $19.2 million represents a small dollar amount compared to Minnesota's $76 billion fund, about .0253 percent of the total investments.
The figures were compiled by Institutional Shareholder Services, a company that helped identify global civilian manufacturing companies.
The documents provided to WCCO-TV shows Minnesota has assets in six companies identified by ISS.
They include leading global manufacturers of automatic and semi-automatic weapons, ammunition and high capacity magazines, repeating firearms and single shot firearms.
Here are the six firearm manufacturers in which Minnesota has investments:
- American Outdoor Brands: $296,989
- Daicel Corp: $2,024,570
- Olin Corp: $7,347,092
- Orbital ATK Inc.: $8,751,194
- Sturm Ruger: $455,959
- Vista Outdoor Inc.: $361,074
The majority of assets are held by passively managed index funds that do not select specific securities to purchase, according to SBI, but purchase every security in the index fund.
By comparison, Minnesota's largest investments are in tech stocks, including Apple, Microsoft and Amazon.
- Apple: $906,243,935 or 1.19 percent of the portfolios.
- Microsoft: $740,184,537 or 0.98 percent
- Amazon: $724,443,668 or 0.98 percent
The State Board of Investment compiled the numbers on Minnesota gun investments after the deadly school shootings in Florida.
There is currently no call at the State Capitol to divest of those stocks.
