Fund Evaluator:

Gabelli Equity Income AAA Overview

Gabelli Equity Income AAA (GABEX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Large Value fund. Gabelli launched the fund in 1992.

The investment seeks to provide a high level of total return on its assets with an emphasis on income. The fund seeks to achieve its investment objective through a combination of capital appreciation and current income by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of its net assets in income producing equity securities of both U.S. and non-U.S. companies. Income producing equity securities include, for example, common stock, preferred stock, and convertible securities.

About Gabelli Equity Income AAA (GABEX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 11.67 years: Christopher Marangi (2026), Kevin Dreyer (2026), Mario Gabelli (1992). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 2 primary benchmarks: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100% and Lipper Eqty Incm Fds Avg index with a weighting of 100%. Gabelli Equity Income AAA has 217 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 29.2% of the fund’s assets. The fund meets the SEC requirement of being classified as a diversified fund. The fund is not considered to have an ESG focus with its investment selection and management.

Gabelli Equity Income AAA is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Gabelli Equity Income AAA has 20.5% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 79.4%. There is 20.5% allocated to foreign stock, and 0.0% is allocated to preferred stocks. The bond allocation as a percentage of total assets is 0.0% (0.0% domestic bond, 0.0% foreign bond and 0.0% convertible bond). Gabelli Equity Income AAA has 0.2% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $174 million in total assets, which is below the $1 billion average for the Large Value category. Normally, lower assets under management translates to higher average expense ratios, and greater total assets are desired. However, for some investment categories, such as small-cap investing, it may be difficult for the manager to fully employ the desired active strategy if assets grow too large or too quickly.

GABEX Performance and Fees

The expense ratio measures how much of a fund’s assets are used for administrative expenses and operating expenses, including adviser fees and fees for the transfer agent and custodial services. The Gabelli Equity Income AAA expense ratio is high compared to funds in the Large Value category. Gabelli Equity Income AAA has an expense ratio of 1.41%, which is 52% higher than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a F. While it is difficult to predict returns, it is known that high annual expense ratios reduce your rate of return, and excessive fees are difficult to overcome. Active management normally comes with higher expense ratios than passive index management. Certain investment categories such as small company and foreign also normally have higher expense ratios. It is best to compare fund expense ratios against the category averages for meaningful assessments.

High portfolio turnover can translate to higher expenses and lower aftertax returns. A portfolio turnover rate cannot be currently calculated for Gabelli Equity Income AAA. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 62% for the Large Value category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Gabelli Equity Income AAA returned 2.3%, which earned it a grade of B, as the Large Value category had an average return of 1.6%. The letter grades of A, B, C, D and F are based upon relative rankings within the investment category. A grade of A, for example, would indicate that the return is in the highest 20% for that time period compared to all funds in that category.

Gabelli Equity Income AAA has a trailing yield of 15.72%, which is above the 1.25% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains monthly.

It’s natural to seek the best-performing investments, but you must consider the relationship between risk and return and the impact of costs and taxes on your realized returns.

Gabelli Equity Income AAA Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 9.0%, 2.0 percentage points worse than the category, which translates into a grade of D. The fund has returned 18.1% over the past year (grade of D), 11.8% over the past three years (grade of F) and 7.9% per year over the past five years (grade of F) and 9.2% per year over the past 10 years (grade of F).

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