U.S. Quality ESG Fund
Northern Funds
Expense ratio
Net assets1
$322.01M
Holdings1
173
Category
US Equity
Return

Investment objective & strategy

As of July 29, 2025 · prospectus

Objective. The Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation. Any income received is incidental to this objective.

Strategy. In seeking long-term capital appreciation, the Fund will invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets (plus borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of large and mid-capitalization U.S. companies that NTI believes have favorable environmental, social and governance (ESG) characteristics under a third-party vendors rating methodology. For purposes of this definition, U.S. companies with a market capitalization within the range of the Russell 1000 Index will be considered large or mid-capitalization U.S. companies. Companies whose capitalization no longer meets this definition after purchase may continue to be considered large or mid-capitalization companies. Using a quantitative, factor based approach, the Fund intends to invest in companies that: (i) meet certain criteria for ESG factors using data provided … In seeking long-term capital appreciation, the Fund will invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets (plus borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of large and mid-capitalization U.S. companies that NTI believes have favorable environmental, social and governance (ESG) characteristics under a third-party vendors rating methodology. For purposes of this definition, U.S. companies with a market capitalization within the range of the Russell 1000 Index will be considered large or mid-capitalization U.S. companies. Companies whose capitalization no longer meets this definition after purchase may continue to be considered large or mid-capitalization companies. Using a quantitative, factor based approach, the Fund intends to invest in companies that: (i) meet certain criteria for ESG factors using data provided by one or more third-party research vendors; (ii) exhibit strong business fundamentals, solid management and reliable cash flows; and (iii) are located, headquartered in, incorporated in or otherwise organized in the United States. The Funds ESG criteria is applied to all equity securities that are included in the Russell 1000 Index, except that the Fund may at times hold securities that are subject to, or may hold securities as a result of, certain corporate actions, which securities may not be evaluated for ESG criteria. The Fund expects its investments to be allocated among companies that are diversified in terms of industries and capitalization ranges. The Fund is managed according to a quantitative model developed by NTI. To define an investable universe, NTI first excludes securities of companies included in the Russell 1000 Index that are involved in ESG controversies classified as very severe by a third-party research vendor under certain global conventions, such as the United Nations Global Compact Principles. NTI also removes companies that, based on its evaluation of ESG data, appear to do a poor job of managing their ESG risks and opportunities relative to their peers as well as those with specified levels of involvement in controversial business practices, e.g., tobacco, civilian firearms, thermal coal, and both controversial and conventional weapons. NTI may modify this list of excluded companies at any time, without shareholder approval or notice. NTI engages a third-party research vendor to provide ESG data for U.S. companies. The third-party vendor identifies ESG areas of risk and opportunity, evaluates exposure and management, and ranks and rates companies against their industry peers. After defining the investable universe, NTI evaluates the quality of the remaining securities and removes those securities that do not meet the proprietary quality methodology. NTIs quality methodology rates and ranks securities based on three categories of financial signals (profitability, management efficiency, and cash generation). Those securities remaining from the investable universe are also rated and ranked based on NTIs evaluation of their ESG characteristics. The Fund is constructed based on an optimization methodology designed to take active exposure by overweighting and underweighting securities based on their ESG and relative financial quality rankings. NTI also performs a risk management analysis in which NTI seeks to measure and manage risk exposures at the security, sector and portfolio levels through portfolio diversification. NTI makes final purchase decisions based on the quantitative model described above and on the desired level of diversification. The Fund will normally sell a security that NTI believes is no longer attractive based upon the evaluation criteria described above. Further, in making purchase and sell decisions, NTI seeks to create a portfolio comprised of companies with a lower aggregate carbon footprint than the aggregate carbon footprint of the companies in the Russell 1000 Index, which includes consideration of a companys emissions and carbon reserves as well as the extent to which a company is prepared for, and can mitigate risk associated with, a transition to a low carbon economy. The Fund may use derivatives such as stock index futures contracts to equitize cash and enhance portfolio liquidity. ESG criteria are not applied to the Funds investments in derivatives. From time to time the Fund may have a focused investment (i.e., investment exposure comprising more than 15% of its total assets) in one or more particular sectors. As of March 31, 2025, the Fund had focused investments in the information technology and financials sectors. Frank Russell Company does not endorse any of the securities in the Russell 1000 Index. It is not a sponsor of the Fund and is not affiliated with the Fund in any way.

Top holdings

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
SecurityTickerValue% of fund
NVIDIA CORP $23.83M 7.40%
APPLE INC $21.02M 6.53%
ALPHABET INC CL A $15.62M 4.85%
MICROSOFT CORP $15.17M 4.71%
BROADCOM INC $9.67M 3.00%
AMAZON.COM INC $9.12M 2.83%
VERISURE HOLDING AB $7.56M 2.35%
Northern Institutional Funds GOVT PTFL BNGXX $6.77M 2.10%
JPMORGAN CHASE and CO $6.46M 2.00%
META PLATFORMS INC CL A $5.15M 1.60%
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Allocation by sector

As of March 31, 2026 · N-PORT
View portfolio breakdown →

Portfolio moves

Dec 31, 2025 → Mar 31, 2026
Opened
14
Exited
16
Increased
10
Decreased
149
Unchanged
0

How many positions this fund opened, exited, grew, trimmed, or left unchanged between its two most recent N-PORT snapshots — net changes between point-in-time reports, not a trade log.

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Advisers

As of March 31, 2025 · N-CEN
FirmRole
NORTHERN TRUST INVESTMENTS, INC. Adviser

Footnotes

  1. Net assets and holdings count as of March 31, 2026, from the fund's N-PORT filing.

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