Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 50,000 ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 50,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $978,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ZTO. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 831.6% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,168,821 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $22,850,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,359 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,860,285 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $153,669,000 after purchasing an additional 820,686 shares during the last quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. now owns 6,617,077 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $129,364,000 after purchasing an additional 633,604 shares during the last quarter. WFM ASIA BVI Ltd acquired a new position in ZTO Express (Cayman) during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,364,000. Finally, Todd Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 36.5% during the fourth quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 1,345,583 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $26,306,000 after purchasing an additional 359,578 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.65% of the company’s stock.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) stock opened at $18.74 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.58. The company has a market cap of $11.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.92, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.14. ZTO Express has a 1 year low of $16.34 and a 1 year high of $27.50.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.02). ZTO Express (Cayman) had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 20.56%. The business had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.73 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that ZTO Express will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. This represents a yield of 4.7%. ZTO Express (Cayman)’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.95%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ZTO has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. HSBC upgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, ZTO Express (Cayman) presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.28.

About ZTO Express (Cayman)

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc provides express delivery and other value-added logistics services in the People's Republic of China. It offers freight forwarding services; and delivery services for e-commerce and traditional merchants, and other express service users. The company was founded in 2002 and is headquartered in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China.