ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) versus Air T (NASDAQ:AIRTP) Head-To-Head Comparison

Air T (NASDAQ:AIRTP) and ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) are both industrials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for Air T and ZTO Express (Cayman), as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Air T	0	0	0	0	0.00
ZTO Express (Cayman)	0	3	2	1	2.67

ZTO Express (Cayman) has a consensus target price of $27.03, indicating a potential upside of 13.20%. Given ZTO Express (Cayman)’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ZTO Express (Cayman) is more favorable than Air T.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

41.6% of ZTO Express (Cayman) shares are held by institutional investors. 41.3% of ZTO Express (Cayman) shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Air T and ZTO Express (Cayman)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Air T	N/A	N/A	N/A
ZTO Express (Cayman)	17.87%	14.23%	9.90%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Air T and ZTO Express (Cayman)”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Air T	$327.09 million	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
ZTO Express (Cayman)	$7.02 billion	1.90	$1.30 billion	$1.63	14.65

ZTO Express (Cayman) has higher revenue and earnings than Air T.

Dividends

Air T pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 10.5%. ZTO Express (Cayman) pays an annual dividend of $0.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. ZTO Express (Cayman) pays out 46.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

ZTO Express (Cayman) beats Air T on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Air T

Air T, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides overnight air cargo, ground equipment sale, and commercial jet engines and parts in the United States and internationally. The Overnight Air Cargo segment offers air express delivery services. As of March 31, 2023, this segment had 85 aircraft under the dry-lease agreements with FedEx. The Ground Equipment Sales segment manufactures, sells, and services aircraft deicers, scissor-type lifts, military and civilian decontamination units, flight-line tow tractors, glycol recovery vehicles, and other specialized equipment. This segment sells its products to passenger and cargo airlines, ground handling companies, the United States Air Force, airports, and industrial customers. The Commercial Aircraft, Engines and Parts segment offers commercial aircraft trading, leasing, and parts solutions; commercial aircraft storage, storage maintenance, and aircraft disassembly/part-out services; commercial aircraft parts sales, exchanges, procurement services, consignment programs, and overhaul and repair services; and aircraft instrumentation, avionics, and a range of electrical accessories for civilian, military transport, regional/commuter and business/commercial jet, and turboprop aircraft. This segment also provides composite aircraft structures, and repair and support services. Air T, Inc. was incorporated in 1980 and is based in Denver, North Carolina.

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.