Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of ZTO Express (Cayman) Put Options (NYSE:ZTO)

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders acquired 3,023 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 181% compared to the typical volume of 1,077 put options.

Institutional Trading of ZTO Express (Cayman)

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Todd Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 10.4% in the second quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 1,891,052 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $42,322,000 after buying an additional 178,235 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1,506.9% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 920,352 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $23,165,000 after purchasing an additional 863,078 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 400.2% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 618,800 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $15,575,000 after purchasing an additional 495,100 shares during the period. Icon Advisers Inc. Co. raised its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 20.0% in the 1st quarter. Icon Advisers Inc. Co. now owns 240,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $6,041,000 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 575.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 211,401 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $5,321,000 after purchasing an additional 180,110 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.65% of the company’s stock.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Stock Performance

ZTO Express (Cayman) stock traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $20.66. 418,136 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,980,567. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.67 and a quick ratio of 1.67. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $21.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $22.86. ZTO Express has a fifty-two week low of $18.11 and a fifty-two week high of $26.20. The company has a market capitalization of $11.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of -0.19.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, August 15th. The transportation company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.15 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 19.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that ZTO Express will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on ZTO. Wall Street Zen raised shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $29.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $26.05.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Company Profile

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc is a China-based express delivery and logistics company. Through its network of sorting centers, transportation routes and service outlets, the company provides parcel collection, sorting, line-haul transportation and last-mile delivery services for e-commerce merchants, businesses and individual customers.

The company also offers related logistics services, including freight delivery, supply-chain solutions, international logistics and cloud-based warehouse services.