It was a decision that shocked no one -- not even the markets.

On Thursday the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve announced that it was raising the federal funds interest rate one-fourth of a percent, a move anticipated by many investment managers.

“This was one of the most simultaneously anticipated, yet expected, rate-hike announcements ever,” says Brett Wander, CIO of fixed income for San Francisco-based Charles Schwab Investment Management. “In the grand scheme of things, it would have been shocking if they didn’t raise rates.”

This is the first time the Federal Reserve has increased interest rates in nearly a decade, but investors were prepared, says James Ragan, director of Seattle-based D.A. Davidson’s individual investor group, who was watching for the raise since the end of quantitative easing policies in 2014.

“It doesn’t change our views on the markets because the rate increase has hung over the market for all of 2015,” Ragan says. “Now we have it, and I’m not sure our outlook is going to change from here. There will still be ongoing discussion of when the next hike will be, the economic data will be tightly scrutinized and we’ll be listening for hints in the Fed’s statements. In general, the economy can support the rate hike and we remain positive on equities for 2016."

The Fed, unanimous in its decision, stated that the increase was motivated by recent positive jobs numbers and a desire to move closer to an inflation target of 2 percent.

But Steve Wood, chief market strategist for Russell Investments, says the move was more likely motivated by a desire to get into positive interest rate territory.

“From a policy meaure, they wanted to get here, and now they’ve achieved what they term lift-off,” Wood says. “To call it tightening would be flambouyant, it’s not tightening, this is a baby step on the path towards normalization.”

The announcement comes after months of preparing markets and investors for rising rates, and was accompanied by a cautious tone from Fed Chairman Janet Yellen.

“She’s very cognizant of how fragile the economy is, though it is improving,” Wander says. “The single worst-case scenario for Yellen is that the Fed finds itself having to reverse course and ends up undoing the rate hike.”

According to the Fed, household spending and business fixed investment increased and the housing sector improved over the latter half of 2015, offsetting concerns about declining exports amid the stronger dollar.

Next year, the Fed anticipates that unemployment will fall to 4.7 percent and that the economy will grow 2.4 percent, but board members didn’t expect to hit their inflation target in the near term.

“It’s unlike any rate hike we’ve ever seen,” Wander says. “I can’t recall a time in history when the Fed has raised rates while hoping for greater levels of inflation.”

Some analysts, like Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, argue that the markets aren’t ready for the increase. That view was panned by Joseph Davis, chief economist of Vanguard Investment Strategy Group, in a statement released after the decision.

“In our opinion, those who claim that raising rates is a ‘policy mistake’ that may derail the U.S. recovery underappreciate the still-accommodative stance of monetary policy and the resiliency of the U.S. economy. There is little to no empirical support showing a strong and material link between a 25 basis point rate hike and future U.S. economic conditions given the still-negative real fed funds rate.”

In fact, this was a decision that the Fed could have made some time ago, argues Chris Beck, CIO of small-cap value and mid-cap value equity at Philadelphia-based Delaware Investments.

“When you look at the history of what they did, it was supposed to be a three-month temporary stopgap back in 2008 to shore up the financial markets, but it got to the point where they not only kept it at zero, but they did quantitative easing for the sake of the stock market. It was very helpful to people invested in stocks, they have thoroughly enjoyed the ride, but I happen to believe that when you have an economy that’s growing, even at the modest rate of 2 percent, rates above zero are appropriate.”

After the announcement, the major indexes reported modest gains Wednesday afternoon.

“This is a well-engineered lift-off,” says Jeff Klingelhofer, portfolio manager and managing director at Santa Fe, N.M.-based Thornburg Investment Management. “It was much more anticipated by the markets as a whole than it was in September

Barring unforeseen developments, the Fed isn’t done raising rates, with several more hikes likely to come in 2016.

“The pace will be gradual and data-dependent as they look at the employment situation and inflation,” says Ragan. “A lot of people we talk to expect fewer rate increases, but their 1.4 or 1.5 percent target seems realistic.”

Klingelhofer says that the Fed’s projections are optimistic when compared with what the markets are predicting.

“The biggest disconnect between the markets and the Fed is that the dot points didn’t move,” Klingelhofer says. “The word ’gradual’ did appear, but the Fed is still on target for four rate hikes next year while the market has priced in two, and at some point those projections have to merge.”

In its announcement, the Fed said that economic conditions were likely to support “only gradual increases in the federal funds rate,” and that the rate is likely to remain below its eventual target “for some time,” plotting increases of approximately one percentage point a year through 2019, when it projects rates will reach 3.3 percent, well below the 2006 peak of 5.5 percent.

Wood says the projected increases should be taken as a bullish statement on the economy, not necessarily a realistic path towards normalization.

“Giving the dot-plot shows that the Fed believes, and it was unanimous, that the economy is sufficiently strong, inflation is sufficiently stable, financial markets are sufficiently stable and that normal is the appropriate policy,” says Wood. “Saying it gets the market to believe in it, and by believing it it happens. If investors believe in and behave in accordance with their paradigm, it is a real paradigm.”

Beck says advisors should tell their clients not to bank on major changes in the short term.

“If you are expecting a sharp rate increase, you’re going to be disappointed, and if you’re expecting continual rate increases, you’ll be disappointed,” Beck says. “This is a dovish fed that wants to make sure the economy maintains reasonable growth and that inflation increases to 2 percent.”

Investors need to be educated that in the current environment, the decision to raise rates indicates economic optimism, says Ragan.

“They keep saying that future rate hikes will be data dependent, so we wouldn’t expect more hikes unless the economy is growing to support them,” Ragan says. “That means there’s still a good environment for U.S. companies and the stock market. We’ll be telling investors to stay invested and take advantage of pullbacks to build quality portfolios.”