Emerging market stocks have rebounded in recent weeks after plummeting last year through the beginning of this year. And some big-time institutional investors are bullish on the asset class.

The MSCI Emerging Market Index has gained 3.1 percent in the past three months, though it is still down 0.7 percent for the year-to-date and 4.1 percent for the past 12 months.

"We're now at a point where valuations are low, investment management expertise has grown and we should be able to get great stock picking there," Jane Mendillo, CEO of $33 billion Harvard Management Co., said at an investment conference this week, CNBC reports.

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"I'm excited about the opportunities."

Emerging markets are trading at a 40 percent discount to their developed brethren in terms of price-earnings ratios, she noted.

La Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, a $200 billion pension plan, seeks to invest in countries with a growing upper-middle class, as they shift their focus to domestic consumption from exports, said CEO Michael Sabia, according to CNBC.

Meanwhile, China Investment Corp., the $600 billion sovereign wealth fund, is enthusiastic about emerging markets for their long-term growth potential and attractive valuations, said fund president Li Keping, according to the news service.

While institutional investors may be enthusiastic about emerging markets, individual investors are apparently more interested in frontier markets.

They have allocated $614 million to frontier-market stocks and bonds during that period, a record rate, according to EPFR Global, The Wall Street Journal reports. At the same time, emerging markets have seen an outflow of $35 billion.

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