Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund Outperforms Benchmark, Peers In Past Decade

NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Neuberger Berman Group LLC, one of the world's leading employee-controlled money managers, is pleased to mark the 10-year anniversary of Kenneth Turek's tenure as portfolio manager of the $697 million Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund (as of January 31, 2013) (tickers: NMGAX, NMGCX, NBMLX, NMANX, NBMTX, NBMBX, NMGRX). Turek began managing the Fund in January 2003.

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With Turek as manager, the Fund's institutional share class has generated a 11.27% annualized return for the 10 years through January 31, 2013 placing it ahead of its mid cap growth category, according to fund tracker Morningstar Inc., and its benchmark, the Russell Mid Cap Growth Index. The Morningstar ratings for Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund – Investor Class for the Overall, 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods ended December 31, 2012 were 4 stars (out of 671 mid cap growth funds), 4 stars (out of 671 mid-cap growth funds), 4 stars (out of 591 mid cap growth funds) and 4 stars (out of 431 mid cap growth funds), respectively. The Morningstar ratings for Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund – Class A for the Overall, 3-, 5-, and 10-year periods ended December 31, 2012 were 3 stars (out of 671 mid cap growth funds), 3 stars (out of 671 mid cap growth funds), 3 stars (out of 591 mid cap growth funds) and 4 stars (out of 431 mid cap growth funds), respectively. The Fund has also been has awarded a Bronze rating by the fund rating firm.

"We're delighted to celebrate the distinguished track record of the Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund under the leadership of Ken Turek,'' said Joseph Amato, Neuberger Berman's president and chief investment officer. "We're pleased the Fund has garnered praise from independent analysts including Morningstar's for its strategy and its performance. The focus on research and risk management, and on delivering attractive long-term performance are hallmarks of our firm's distinctive and enduring investment culture.''

Ken Turek is a Chicago-based managing director at Neuberger Berman who manages more than $2.1 billion mid-cap assets for institutional and individual investors in separate account and mutual fund assets (as of December 31, 2012). Before joining Neuberger Berman in 2002, Turek was an institutional portfolio manager at Northern Trust. Earlier, he was a portfolio manager at National Investment Services and chief investment officer at ColeTaylor Bank.

About Neuberger Berman

Neuberger Berman is a private, independent, employee-controlled investment manager. It partners with institutions, advisors and individuals throughout the world to customize solutions that address their needs for income, growth and capital preservation. With more than 1,700 professionals focused exclusively on asset management, it offers an investment culture of independent thinking.  Founded in 1939, the company provides solutions across equities, fixed income, hedge funds and private equity, and had $205 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2012. For more information, please visit our website at www.nb.com.

An investor should consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks and fees and expenses carefully before investing. This and other important information can be found in the Fund's prospectus, which can be obtained by calling 877.628.2583. Please read it carefully before making an investment. The prospectus contains a more complete discussion of the risk of investing in the Fund.

The stocks of mid-cap companies are often more volatile and less liquid than the stocks of larger companies and may be more affected than other types of stocks by the underperformance of a sector or during market downturns. Compared to larger companies, mid-cap companies may have a shorter history of operations, and may have limited product lines, markets or financial resources.

Because the prices of most growth stocks are based on future expectations, these stocks tend to be more sensitive than value stocks to bad economic news and negative earnings surprises. Bad economic news or changing investor perceptions can negatively affect growth stocks across several industries and sectors simultaneously.

To the extent the Fund invests more heavily in particular sectors, its performance will be especially sensitive to developments that significantly affect those sectors. Individual sectors may move up and down more than the broader market. The several industries that constitute a sector may all react in the same way to economic, political or regulatory events.

Performance data quoted represent past performance, which is no guarantee of future results. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. For performance data current to the most recent month-end, please visit www.nb.com/performance. Average Annual Total Returns with sales charge reflect deduction of current maximum initial sales charge of 5.75% for Class A shares and applicable contingent deferred sales charges (CDSC) for Class C shares. The maximum CDSC for Class C shares is 1%, which is reduced to 0% after 1 year.

Source: Morningstar, Neuberger Berman Management LLC.^®

^* The inception date for Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund Class A, Class C and Class R3 is 5/27/2009. The inception dates for Neuberger Berman Mid Cap Growth Fund Institutional, Investor, Trust, and Advisor Classes are 4/19/07, 3/1/79 (when Neuberger Berman Management Inc.^® first became investment advisor to Mid Cap Growth Fund), 8/30/93, and 9/3/96, respectively. The inception date used to calculate benchmark performance is that of the Investor Class.

*Morningstar Average is the average of all the funds in the Morningstar category. The Morningstar category identifies funds based on their actual investment style as measured by their underlying portfolio holdings (portfolio statistics and compositions over the last 3 years). This category was chosen for comparison purposes because the portfolio compositions of the funds in this category are similar to the composition of the fund over this period.

1. Results are shown on a "total return" basis and include reinvestment of all dividends and capital gains distributions. Neuberger Berman Management LLC^® ("NBM") caps the Class A, C, R3, Institutional and Advisor Class expenses. Absent such arrangements, the total returns would have been less. Shares of the Class A, C, R3, Institutional, Trust Class and Advisor Class may not be purchased directly from NBM; they may only be purchased through certain institutions that have entered into administrative services contracts with NBM. The inception date of Class A, C and R3 is May 27, 2009. The inception dates of the Institutional Class, Trust Class and Advisor are April 19, 2007, August 30, 1993 and September 3,1996, respectively. Performance prior to those inception dates is of the Investor Class, which has lower expenses and typically higher returns than all other class shares.
2. The Russell Midcap™ Growth Index measures the performance of those Russell Midcap™ Index companies with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth values. The Russell Midcap Index measures the performance of the 800 smallest companies in the Russell 1000^® Index, which represents approximately 31% of the total market capitalization of the Russell 1000 Index (which, in turn, consists of the 1,000 largest US companies, based on market capitalization). Please note that indices do not take into account any fees and expenses of investing in the individual securities that they track, and that individuals cannot invest directly in any index. Data about the performance of these indices are prepared or obtained by Neuberger Berman Management LLC. and include reinvestment of all dividends and capital gain distributions. The Fund may invest in many securities not included in the above-described indices.
3. Information as of most recent prospectus dated December 15, 2012.
4. Neuberger Berman Management contractually caps certain class expenses of the Fund through 8/31/2016 for Class A, C, R3 and Institutional Class.

For each retail mutual fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variations in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive five stars, the next 22.5% receive four stars, the next 35% receive three stars, the next 22.5% receive two stars and the bottom 10% receive one star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and is rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a retail mutual fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. Ratings are ©2013 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information.

The "Neuberger Berman" name and logo are registered service marks of Neuberger Berman Group LLC. "Neuberger Berman Management LLC" and the individual Fund names in this piece are either service marks or registered service marks of Neuberger Berman Management LLC. © 2013 Neuberger Berman Management LLC, distributor. All rights reserved.

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