Fund Evaluator:

Northern Income Equity Overview

Northern Income Equity (NOIEX) is an actively managed U.S. Equity Large Value fund. Northern Funds launched the fund in 1994.

The investment seeks to provide a high level of current income and long-term capital appreciation. In seeking to achieve its investment objective, the fund will, under normal circumstances, invest at least 80% of its net assets in income-producing equity securities, including dividend-paying common and preferred stocks. It seeks to provide a high level of current income relative to other mutual funds that invest in equity securities. The fund may use derivatives such as stock index futures contracts to equitize cash and enhance portfolio liquidity.

About Northern Income Equity (NOIEX)

There are 3 members of the management team with an average tenure of 8.59 years: Jeffrey Sampson (2017), Sridhar Kancharla (2018), Reed LeMar (2017). Management tenure is more important for actively managed funds than passive index funds.

The fund has 1 primary benchmark: S&P 500 (TR) (1970) index with a weighting of 100%. Northern Income Equity has 168 securities in its portfolio. The top 10 holdings constitute 38.2% 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.

Northern Income Equity is part of the Equity global asset class and is within the U.S. Equity fund group. Northern Income Equity has 0.3% of its portfolio invested in foreign issues. The overall assets allocated to domestic stock is 99.6%. There is 0.3% 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). Northern Income Equity has 0.1% of the portfolio in cash.

Assets Under Management

The fund has $316 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.

NOIEX 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 Northern Income Equity expense ratio is average compared to funds in the Large Value category. Northern Income Equity has an expense ratio of 0.49%, which is 47% lower than its category average, making the fund expense ratio grade a A. 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. Northern Income Equity has a portfolio turnover rate of 38%, indicating that holds its assets around 0.0 years. By way of comparison, the average portfolio turnover is 62% for the Large Value category.

Recently, in the month of June 2026, Northern Income Equity returned -0.8%, which earned it a grade of F, 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.

Northern Income Equity has a trailing yield of 1.44%, which is above the 1.25% category average. The fund normally distributes its income monthly and its capital gains annually.

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.

Northern Income Equity Grades

Year to date, the fund has returned 11.3%, 0.3 percentage points better than the category, which translates into a grade of C. The fund has returned 24.0% over the past year (grade of B), 20.9% over the past three years (grade of A) and 13.7% per year over the past five years (grade of A) and 13.7% per year over the past 10 years (grade of A).

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