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Feb. 26, 2021
AB EQUITY INCOME FUND INC
AB Equity Income Fund
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The Fund’s investment objective is current income and long-term growth of capital.
FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. You may qualify for sales charge reductions if you and members of your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $100,000 in AB Mutual Funds. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial intermediary and in Investing in the Funds—Sales Charge Reduction Programs for Class A Shares on page 69 of this Prospectus, in Appendix B—Financial Intermediary Waivers of this Prospectus and in Purchase of Shares—Sales Charge Reduction Programs for Class A Shares on page 131 of the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”). You may be required to pay commissions and/or other forms of compensation to a broker for transactions in Advisor Class shares, which are not reflected in the tables or the examples below.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Examples
The Examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Examples assume that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Examples also assume that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses stay the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:  
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys or sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These transaction costs, which are not reflected in the Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Examples, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 37% of the average value of its portfolio.
PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES
The Fund invests primarily in a diversified portfolio of equity securities of U.S. companies. Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities. The Fund invests primarily in income-producing securities, targeting an investment in such securities of at least 65% of its total assets. The Fund seeks current income and capital growth from investments in a wide range of industries. The Fund invests in companies that the Adviser determines to be undervalued, using the fundamental value approach of the Adviser. The fundamental value approach seeks to identify a universe of securities that are considered to be undervalued because they are attractively priced relative to their future earnings power and dividend-paying capability. In selecting securities for the Fund’s portfolio, the Adviser uses fundamental and quantitative research to identify and invest in those companies whose long-term earnings power and dividend-paying capability are not reflected in the current market price of these securities. The Adviser’s fundamental analysis depends heavily upon its large internal research staff. The research staff of company and industry analysts covers a research universe drawn primarily from the S&P 500 Index. The Adviser typically projects a company’s financial performance over a full economic cycle, including a trough and a peak, within the context of forecasts for real economic growth, inflation and interest rate changes. The Adviser’s research staff focuses on the valuations implied by the current price, relative to the earnings the company will be generating five years from now, or “normalized” earnings, assuming average mid-economic cycle growth for the fifth year. The Fund’s management team and other senior investment professionals work in close collaboration to weigh each investment opportunity identified by the research staff relative to the entire portfolio and determine the timing and position size for purchases and sales. Analysts remain responsible for monitoring new developments that would affect the securities they cover. The team will generally sell a security when it no longer meets appropriate valuation criteria, although sales may be delayed when positive return trends are favorable. The Fund may invest in securities of non-U.S. companies, but will limit its investments in any one non-U.S. country to no more than 15% of its net assets. The Fund may enter into derivatives transactions, such as options, futures contracts, forwards, and swaps. The Fund may use options strategies involving the purchase and/or writing of various combinations of call and/or put options, including on individual securities and stock indices, futures contracts (including futures contracts on individual securities and stock indices) or shares of exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”). These transactions may be used, for example, in an effort to earn extra income, to adjust exposure to individual securities or markets, or to protect all or a portion of the Fund’s portfolio from a decline in value, sometimes within certain ranges. The Fund may, at times, invest in shares of ETFs in lieu of making direct investments in equity securities. ETFs may provide more efficient and economical exposure to the type of companies and geographic locations in which the Fund seeks to invest than direct investments.
PRINCIPAL RISKS
•   Market Risk: The value of the Fund’s investments will fluctuate as the stock or bond market fluctuates. The value of its investments may decline, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, simply because of economic changes or other events, including public health crises (including the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness), that affect large portions of the market. • Foreign (Non-U.S.) Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers may involve more risk than those of U.S. issuers. These securities may fluctuate more widely in price and may be more difficult to trade due to adverse market, economic, political, regulatory or other factors. • Currency Risk: Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may negatively affect the value of the Fund’s investments or reduce its returns. • Derivatives Risk: Derivatives may be difficult to price or unwind and leveraged so that small changes may produce disproportionate losses for the Fund. Derivatives, especially over-the-counter derivatives, are also subject to counterparty risk to a greater degree than more traditional investments. •   Industry/Sector Risk: Investments in a particular industry or group of related industries may have more risk because market or economic factors affecting that industry could have a significant effect on the value of the Fund’s investments. •   Management Risk: The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively-managed investment fund. The Adviser will apply its investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions, but there is no guarantee that its techniques will produce the intended results. Some of these techniques may incorporate, or rely upon, quantitative models, but there is no guarantee that these models will generate accurate forecasts, reduce risk or otherwise perform as expected. As with all investments, you may lose money by investing in the Fund.
BAR CHART AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
The bar chart and performance information provide an indication of the historical risk of an investment in the Fund by showing:   •   how the Fund’s performance changed from year to year over ten years; and •   how the Fund’s average annual returns for one, five and ten years compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. You may obtain updated performance information on the Fund’s website at www.abfunds.com (click on “Investments—Mutual Funds”). The Fund’s past performance before and after taxes, of course, does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future.
Bar Chart
The annual returns in the bar chart are for the Fund’s Class A shares and do not reflect sales loads. If sales loads were reflected, returns would be less than those shown.  
Calendar Year End (%) During the period shown in the bar chart, the Fund’s: Best Quarter was up 14.65%, 2nd quarter, 2020; and Worst Quarter was down -23.68%, 1st quarter, 2020.
Performance TableAverage Annual Total Returns(For the periods ended December 31, 2020)