ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from $26.40 to $22.60 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Bank of America cut shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. 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 report on Monday, April 14th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $25.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.56.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Trading Up 0.5%

ZTO stock opened at $17.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $18.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.23. ZTO Express has a 12-month low of $16.34 and a 12-month high of $27.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.72, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.14.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.02). ZTO Express (Cayman) had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.73 billion. Equities analysts predict that ZTO Express will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 10th. ZTO Express (Cayman)’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ZTO Express (Cayman)

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,860,285 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $153,669,000 after purchasing an additional 820,686 shares during the period. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. now owns 6,617,077 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $129,364,000 after purchasing an additional 633,604 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,395,333 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $46,829,000 after purchasing an additional 24,903 shares during the period. Todd Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 0.7% in the first quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 1,354,716 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $26,878,000 after purchasing an additional 9,133 shares during the period. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 831.6% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,168,821 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $22,850,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,359 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.65% of the company’s stock.

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.