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Weekly Roundup Feb. 8 – Feb. 12 2016: Three 2016 Wash100 CEOs Whose Firms ‘Beat The Street’ & more


Feb. 8 – Feb. 12 2016

A Note From Our President & Founder Jim Garrettson

Many reasons have been put forth as to why global financial markets continue to be in turmoil but this week showed there may be no end in sight to this period of volatility that has carried over into early 2016 from the last half of 2015.

Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Index of 30 large, publicly-traded government contractors has not been immune from the wild swings spurred by investor worries over a global slowdown, deep plunges in commodities like oil and new concerns over monetary policies by central banks worldwide.

The GovCon Index ended Thursday at an 11-percent decline from the year’s start and the S&P 500 — which contains 11 Index stocks — also crossed the 10-percent down barrier on a year-to-date basis.

Short-term thinking of traders may dominate current market action but investors playing the long game have theoverall trajectory on their side as the S&P 500 climbed 85 percent between 2010 and 2015.

From 2013 to 2015, the composite index rose 43 percent.

And as discussed here previously, some analysts believe defense stocks can be a safety net as they are relatively more sheltered from headwinds of currency fluctuations and economic slowdowns compared to other sectors.

EM’s 2016 Wash100 class of inductees includes three CEOs from America’s “Big Five” publicly-traded government contractors who have helped to steer their companies to consistent financial results that not only “Beat the Street” but help generate returns of capital to shareholders.

Marillyn Hewson and Phebe Novakovic respectively took the helm at Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics in January 2013 and both companies have since recorded year-to-year increases in earnings per share, profit and revenue in all three years since they started in their chief executive roles.

Shares in Lockheed climbed 161 percent and General Dynamics’ stock doubled over that period.

Wes Bush has led Northrop Grumman as chief executive since January 2010 and emphasized shareholder value as a major cornerstone of the company’s business plan.

Over his six-year tenure, earnings per share have climbed 62 percent and the stock price has trebled.

In the words of Wealth Wire Managing Editor and frequent CNBC guest Jimmy Mengel: “If you want a defensive portfolio, you can do worse than this collection of defense stocks.”

THE WEEK’S TOP GOVCON STORIES

CSRA 3Q Earnings Above, Revenue Below Street Outlook; Larry Prior Forecasts Increased Cloud & Big Data Activity
The Falls Church-based contractor’s CEO gives investors his outlook for how agencies will set their technology priorities this year and beyond.
Air Force Picks 8 Firms for $450M National Security Training Support IDIQ
Small business awardees will compete for work in areas such as counter-narcotics, organized crime and threat finance networks.
Oshkosh to Continue JLTV Work After Federal Claims Court Decision
The Wisconsin-based military vehicle manufacturer will proceed on the multiyear Humvee replacement contract worth up to $6.75 billion.
Unisys’ Casey Coleman: DevOps Key to Agile Federal IT Platform Deployment
Coleman describes her vision for a “culture change” agencies should make to speed up deployment of new technology products and platforms.
CAE to Proceed With MH-60 Training System Tech Refresh; Ray Duquette Comments
The Montreal-based company’s U.S. arm will update systems on the Sierra and Romeo variant helicopters built by Sikorsky.
NOAA to Use Northrop-Built Global Hawk for Weather Pattern Data Collection
Starting this month, NOAA scientists will fly the UAV over the Pacific Ocean to study El Nino-related conditions.
NGA Eyes Cloud Transition Contract Award to Ball Aerospace
Ball Aerospace will support data tagging functions for the ICITE GovCloud platform and other commercial cloud services.
Pentagon Details $583B Military Spending Plan for Fiscal 2017
This new budget request from DoD represents a 0.4-percent increase from fiscal 2016’s enacted $580.3 billion budget.
$53B for National Intell Program, $17B for Military Intell Program in FY17 Budget Request
Both amounts represent top-line figures from ODNI and the Pentagon with no other numbers to be disclosed on intelligence spending.
White House Develops $19B Cybersecurity Action Plan
The administration included $3.1 billion in this framework for government IT modernization efforts and also plans to hire a federal CISO.
NASA Gets $260M Cut, $19B Total Budget in Obama’s FY 2017 Proposal
Space exploration programs would receive $3.3 billion under this request with $5.1 billion for space operations.
Obama’s FY 2017 Budget Plan Includes 9% Funding Boost for VA
Medical care would get $65 billion in funds and healthcare research has been given $663 million under the plan.
White House Seeks $50B for FY 2017 Civilian Homeland Security Programs
The administration requested $36.8 billion total for DHS as it sought funding boost to help with border security efforts and cybersecurity initiatives.

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