Income Equity

Summary

This Fund may be a good choice for those moderate-risk investors looking for a relatively high level of current income, but don't want to forego the capital appreciation potential of the stock market. Using quantitative analysis, our experienced investment management team buys and sells securities based on such factors as a company's current income, prospects for growth and capital appreciation potential. 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.

Fund Objective

The Fund seeks to provide a high level of current income and long-term capital appreciation.

Fund Strategy

• Apply a proprietary quality score to screen out low-quality securities, then select stocks from the remaining universe of securities to attain the appropriate quality and yield exposures.
• Maintain a conservative, broadly diversified portfolio of companies with strong prospects for growth and appreciation potential.

Investor Profile

If you are a moderate-risk investor looking for a relatively high level of current income, but don't want to forego the capital appreciation potential of the stock market, you may like this Fund.

Risk/Reward Potential

Overall Morningstar Rating ^TM

Among 1,141 large value funds derived from a weighted average of the fund's 3-, 5- and 10-year risk-adjusted returns as of 8/31/23.

Income Equity received  2 stars for the 3-year rating among 1,141 large value funds, 4 stars for the 5-year rating among 1,084 funds and 4 stars for the 10-year rating among 820 funds.

The Morningstar Rating^TM for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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