2026-Q1 NORTHERN TRUST CORP 13F Filing: Northern Trust aggressively trims NVDA, AAPL, MSFT in Q1 profit-taking

NORTHERN TRUST CORP's Q1 2026 filing reveals a manager aggressively harvesting gains from its massive tech positions while making measured defensive tucks into healthcare and energy. The portfolio's low turnover ratio of 0.141 belies a wave of deliberate size reductions across mega-cap Tech, signaling a capital allocation decision rather than a macro flight. Despite the active trimming, Information Technology remains the portfolio's dominant anchor at 31.87%.

• The fund systematically harvested gains across its three largest winners: NVDA dropped to 5.83%, AAPL's exposure fell by -0.23pts, and MSFT shed to 3.90%.
• AMZN was the one major tech name actively accumulated; the fund increased its share count even as the stock's price weakness pushed its portfolio value lower.
• The energy trimming was textbook tactical selling into strength. XOM's share count fell sharply, yet its price surge boosted the weight from 0.66% to 0.96%.
• Healthcare rebuilding was deliberate: JNJ climbed to 0.95% as the fund added shares, while LLY also saw a trim, dropping from 1.21% to 1.07%.
• A direct roll occurred in pharma, where the fund closed AZNN and simultaneously opened a new stake in AZN.
• Defensive staples got a lift too. WMT grew to 0.69% and COST hit 0.65% as the fund added shares.
• Smaller tech bets were a mixed bag: VRT saw its weight jump to 0.12% and SNDK climbed from 0.03% to 0.10%, while CRM was deeply trimmed from 0.35% to 0.25%.
• JPM was trimmed from 1.30% to 1.21%, taking some financial exposure off the table, and CAT was trimmed yet its weight rose from 0.43% to 0.53% on the industrial rally.

The breadth of the trim actions is the filing's single defining feature. When a manager as large as Northern Trust reduces share counts across its biggest winners—NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, META—it signals a deliberate profit-harvesting program, not a sector rotation. The Information Technology weight remains a massive 31.87% of the portfolio, so this is gain-harvesting, not abandonment. The irony is that several trims, notably XOM and CAT, still increased in weight due to price appreciation—Northern Trust sold shares, but the market gave them more value back. This perfectly captures the tension between active positioning and passive price momentum in a concentrated rally.

The add list is short, defensive, and opportunistic. AMZN is the only mega-cap tech name that saw active buying, while PLTR was added to on its dip even as its weight slipped from 0.47% to 0.40%. The rest of the adds are staples (WMT, COST), energy producers (COP, GUNR), healthcare (JNJ), and a roll from AZNN to AZN. This is a textbook defense tilt: sell the stocks that hit your risk targets, buy the ones that lagged. The low turnover ratio of 0.141 confirms Northern Trust is running an optimizer executing calculated marginal trades, not a portfolio reboot.

• Northern Trust is methodically harvesting gains from its largest tech winners (NVDA, AAPL, MSFT, META) while keeping its Information Technology sector weight dominant.
• New capital rotations are modest and defensive, focusing on AMZN, JNJ, WMT, and a specific pharma swap from AZNN to AZN.
• The portfolio's low turnover (0.141) confirms these are precision tax/gain-management adjustments, not a macro shift in conviction.