Beer Biz Fends Off The Big Box

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, beer brewers and distributors meet for their annual legislative conference. One thousand of them will rub elbows, drink beer and charge up to Capitol Hill to call on their elected representatives.

“This is the time when we tell the industry story,” says Craig Purser, president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA).

That story has plenty of positives to it, as any aficionado of brews will tell you. American brewers, 2,400 of them, make the U.S. the world’s No. 1 beer producer. According to NBWA, the industry is responsible for 1.8 million jobs and chips in $30 billion to state and federal tax coffers annually.

But it won’t be all happy talk from the beer crowd to Congress this week. On the top of the agenda: warding off challenges to the regulatory status quo. “There’s an erosion of the ability of states to regulate licensed beverages,” says Purser.

Full story at Forbes.com

Wall Street’s Defense Worthies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – To find out what’s going on in Washington, sometimes the best place to turn is Wall Street. That’s particularly true when it comes to the defense business and the research analysts who track it.

Given the size of the military-industrial complex, there’s no shortage of analysts focused on aerospace and defense companies. By Thomson Financial’s count, for example, 22 analysts cover Lockheed Martin.

One way to cut through the clutter here is our third annual analyst rankings, published this week on Forbes.com. Conducted by our partners at StarMine, a research organization that evaluates analyst performance, the survey identifies Wall Street’s best in two categories: stock picking and accuracy in earnings estimates.

Full story at Forbes.com

Beltway Money Woman: Laura Lukaczyk

WASHINGTON, D.C.–In the spring of 2000, Laura Lukaczyk was hard at work putting together a new venture capital fund. By day, she consulted for venture giant New Enterprise Associates; by night, she honed her marketing and fundraising plans.

She launched Avansis Ventures in early summer. But by then, the Nasdaq market was in free fall, and the telecom bubble was about to blow.

“It was, like, four times my worst case scenario,” Lukaczyk recalls with a chuckle.

Easy to laugh now. Though relatively small at $10 million under management, Lukaczyk and her firm have a roster of interesting portfolio bets and plans for expansion.

Full story at Forbes.com

Medical Devices: Building A Beltway Brand

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s branding time for AdvaMed. The trade group, standard bearer for U.S. makers of medical devices and equipment, will soon roll out a print, outdoor and online campaign aimed at the wonk set here in Washington. The message? Their devices deliver good bang for the buck.

“We’re developing 25 patient case studies around medical technologies that have improved life and also have demonstrable savings associated with them,” says Stephen Ubl, AdvaMed’s chief executive.

One of the first profiles will be Michael Deaver, former communications adviser to Ronald Reagan and present owner of two artificial knees. “[Deaver] is going to talk about what those knees have meant to his everyday life,” Ubl says.

Full story at Forbes.com

Forbes Beltway Index: Methodology

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Forbes Beltway Index tracks the market progress of companies with close business ties to the U.S. federal government: the biggest contractors, government-sponsored enterprises and companies enjoying unique competitive advantages thanks to federal law.

Each Monday, we update price data for the index, in which we give equal weight to each of the component companies. With an equal-weighted index, all components have the same contribution to the index value. This contrasts with big indexes such as the Standard & Poor’s 500, which are weighted toward companies with the largest market capitalizations.

No matter how you feel about what goes on in Washington, our Forbes Beltway Index companies should be of investing interest. Why? For one, winning a government contract is no picnic. Assuming everyone plays by the rules, a company must show procurement officials that it has good products and services, deep technical expertise and, perhaps most important, the financial stability and discipline to carry out the contract. In many cases, companies must provide several years of audited financials before winning a bid.

Full story at Forbes.com

Editor’s Welcome

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Legislation, litigation, lobbying and regulation: None of these Washington pastimes are pretty, but they all affect business and wealth profoundly. To help you assess that impact, we’ve created a Forbes.com section that draws together our insight into doers and doings in Washington. We call it Business in the Beltway.

The section may be new, but Forbes has kept a sharp eye on the Capital City since B.C. Forbes founded the company in 1917. Our Washington bureau, in operation for 50 years, now fields an editorial staff of six, led by veteran reporter and Forbes Senior Editor Janet Novack.

At Business in the Beltway, however, you’ll find much more than coverage from our D.C. bureau. Whenever one of our print or online reporters files a story with a Washington angle, we’ll post it at Business in the Beltway. We’ll also feature pertinent interviews conducted by our anchors on the Forbes.com Video Network.

More at Forbes.com

The Parrotheads Working For The Spooks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you like a touch of irreverence in a chief executive, you’ll appreciate Essex Chief Executive Leonard Moodispaw. The company’s stock symbol, KEYW, pays tribute to his fondness for Key West and the music of singer Jimmy Buffett. According to his official bio, Moodispaw also “enjoys chocolate” and “is growing older but not up.”

Jimmy Buffett? Chocolate? Not exactly the sort of stuff you’d expect to hear about an executive in Essex’s line of work. Essex uses optical processing and proprietary digital algorithms to analyze signals, images and other big chunks of data for federal defense and intelligence outfits. The Columbia, Md., company can’t even reveal the identity of many of its customers, because the contracts are classified.

Speak with Essex brass about strategy, however, and Moodispaw’s line about not growing up starts to make more sense. Indeed, company execs see that youthful spirit as one of its most important assets in a tough intelligence-tech services market.

Full story at Forbes.com

Update: Middle East Stock Picks

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Big events, such as the outbreak of war, prompt scribblers such as ourselves to prognosticate. Some of our calls are better than others. Take this gem of an observation, made at the outset of the Iraq War three years ago: “With Iraq out of the way,” we wrote, “the Bush Administration will be more likely to prioritize resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Iraq, alas, has hardly fallen out of the way, and the Israelis and Palestinians sure don’t seem any closer to living in harmony than they did three years ago.

Better, however, were our calls on stocks in Iraq’s neighborhood–stocks which we thought would benefit from the still-elusive peace dividend. On average, those picks have risen 47% annualized since March 20, 2003, compared with a 16% gain for the S&P 500.

Full story at Forbes.com

Fighting Hackers, Viruses, Bureaucracy

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Search the exact phrase “National Computer Security Survey” on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Web site, and you won’t find a thing.

That’s surprising, because the Department of Homeland Security is a co-sponsor of a study titled “National Computer Security Survey.” At the end of next month, it will be sent by Rand to thousands of businesses in 37 sectors. A DHS rep says there are no plans to issue a press release on the subject until after the survey is completed.

Who’s more interested in getting the word out now? Lobbyists. “This is a pretty important survey,” explains Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance.

Full story at Forbes.com

Beltway Bet: Symbol Technologies

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week, 25,000 conventioneers flocked to Washington for FOSE, an annual trade show on technology for the U.S. federal and defense market. A greeting from President George W. Bush adorned convention programs, and Lockheed Martin chief Robert Stevens kicked things off with a sweeping keynote on challenges facing the United States. “Access to information is central,” he said, “it has never been more important.”

One outfit hoping the government crowd will want more access to information is Symbol Technologies. The Holtsville, N.Y., maker of bar code scanners and other technology to track goods shows signs of competing vigorously in the government market, particularly regarding radio frequency identification (RFID). For the Beltway-minded investor, Symbol’s shares look interesting.

Full story at Forbes.com