Top 5 Mid-Caps for Oct. 30

Each business day, TheStreet.com Ratings compiles a list of the top five stocks in one of five categories -- fast-growth, all-around value, large-cap, mid-cap or small-cap -- based on data from the close of the previous trading session. Today we focus on mid-caps.

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.

Laclede Group(LG Quote) is a public utility holding company that provides natural gas services in eastern Missouri. The company's primary subsidiary, Laclede Gas Company, is the largest gas distribution utility in Missouri, serving approximately 632,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers. We have rated Laclede a buy since September 2004 due to its solid stock price performance, revenue growth, good cash flow from operations, largely solid financial position and notable return on equity.

For the third period of fiscal 2008, the company reported revenue growth of 24.4% year over year. While net income remained flat at $9.27 million, earnings per share rose from 22 cents in the third quarter of fiscal 2008 to 41 cents in the most recent quarter. Although the company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently, we feel that it is poised for continued EPS growth in the coming year. Net operating cash flow increased significantly by 64.28% when compared with the same quarter last year, and strong earnings growth of 86.36% helped the stock surge 46.96% over the past year. In addition, Laclede has a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.76, which implies that the company has been relatively successful in managing its debt levels. However, its quick ratio of 0.77 is somewhat weak and could potentially cause problems in the future.