3 Top Northern Mutual Funds to Add to Your Portfolio Now

Northern mutual funds are a global family of mutual funds provided by Northern Trust. Northern funds offer a broad range of investment options that utilize a variety of investment styles and strategies across a wide range of asset classes and sectors, including equity, fixed income, liquid, real assets and multi-asset. As of Dec. 31, 2025, it had $74.9 billion in assets under management. The investment team uses a risk-based approach to constructing portfolios and incorporates consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors as part of the investment process.

We have chosen three Northern mutual funds — Northern Income Equity NOIEX, Northern Multi-Manager Global Listed Infrastructure Fund NMFIX and Northern Multi-Manager High Yield Opportunity Fund NMHYX — that investors should buy now for the long term. These funds have a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1 (Strong Buy) or 2 (Buy), positive three-year and five-year annualized returns, minimum initial investments within $5000 and expense ratios considerably lower than the category average. So, these funds have provided a comparatively stronger performance and carry a lower fee.

Northern Income Equity fund seeks to provide a high level of current income with long-term capital appreciation as a secondary objective. NOIEX’s approach is to identify the securities of companies that generate high current yields and offer prospects for growth and possible capital appreciation.

Reed A. LeMar has been the lead manager of NOIEX since July 31, 2017. Most of the fund's holdings were in companies like NVIDIA Corp (8.8%), Apple Inc. (8.2%) and Microsoft Corp (5.5%) as of Dec. 31, 2025.

NOIEX's 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 21.5% and 14.9%, respectively. Its net expense ratio is 0.49%. NOIEX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1.

To see how this fund performed compared to its category and other 1 and 2 Ranked Mutual Funds, please click here.

Northern Multi-Manager Global Listed Infrastructure Fund invests a majority of its assets in equity securities of infrastructure companies listed on domestic and foreign exchanges, with significant exposure to international markets, including emerging economies.

Jim Hardman has been the lead manager of NMFIX since May 22, 2023. Most of the fund's holdings were in companies like National Grid plc (4.4%), NextEra Energy, Inc. (3.2%) and Northern Institutional Funds - U.S. Government Portfolio (3%) as of Dec. 31, 2025.

NMFIX's 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 14.2% and 10.4%, respectively. Its net expense ratio is 0.96%. NMFIX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1.

Northern Multi-Manager High Yield Opportunity Fund invests in assets in below-investment-grade bonds (junk bonds) and uses a multi-manager approach, with investments mainly in U.S. issuers but also including foreign debt securities.

Neal Barrett has been the lead manager of NMHYX since May 22, 2023. Most of the fund's holdings were in companies like Misc Bonds (67%), Other (4.4%) and Equities (2.9%) as of Sept. 30, 2025.

NMHYX's 3-year and 5-year annualized returns are 8.8% and 4.6%, respectively. Its net expense ratio is 0.68%. NMHYX has a Zacks Mutual Fund Rank #1.

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