Top Five Mid-Cap Stocks

Each week, TheStreet.com Ratings compiles a list of the top five stocks in five categories -- fast-growth, all-around value, large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap -- and publishes these lists in the Ratings section of our Web site.

This list, last updated Nov. 23, is based on data from the close of the previous trading session. Today, mid-cap stocks are in the spotlight. These are stocks of companies that have market capitalizations of between $500 million and $10 billion that rank near the top of all stocks rated by our proprietary quantitative model, which looks at more than 60 factors.

The stocks must also be followed by at least one financial analyst who posts estimates on the Institutional Brokers' Estimate System. They are ordered by their potential to appreciate.

Note that no provision is made for off-balance-sheet assets such as unrealized appreciation/depreciation of investments, market value of real estate or contingent liabilities that might affect book value. This could be material for some companies with large underfunded pension plans.

DeVry(DV Quote), an education services company, has been rated a buy since January. The company's strengths can be seen in several areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, solid stock price performance and impressive growth in revenue, EPS and net income.

These strengths should outweigh the company's low profit margins. Fiscal-year first-quarter adjusted earnings totaled $29.1 million, or 40 cents a share, up about 28% from a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive EPS growth over the past two years and this is expected to continue. Revenue rose 14% to $250.3 million.

The educational services market is characterized by intense competition. Private companies also face tough competition from public institutions, which are backed by government subsidies, grants, tax incentives and other financial resources generally not available to private schools.