Stock Picks: Top Five Mid-Caps for Aug. 7

Each business day, 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 is based on data from the close of the previous trading session. Today we focus on mid-caps. These are stocks of companies with 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.

First up is Ameron International (AMN Quote), which manufactures highly engineered products and materials for the chemical, industrial, energy, transportation and infrastructure markets worldwide.

The company's products include such items as high-performance coatings and surfacer systems for the preservation of structures, molded fiberglass pipes and fittings, ready-mix concrete and products and services used in the construction of water pipelines. Products are produced at plants in a variety of locations throughout the U.S. -- such as Arkansas, California, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington -- and through subsidiaries in Australia, Colombia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.