Critical Contrast: ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) versus ETS (NASDAQ:ETS)

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for ETS and ZTO Express (Cayman), as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
ETS	1	0	0	0	1.00
ZTO Express (Cayman)	0	3	1	1	2.60

ZTO Express (Cayman) has a consensus price target of $26.05, suggesting a potential upside of 26.43%. Given ZTO Express (Cayman)’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe ZTO Express (Cayman) is more favorable than ETS.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
ETS	$2.67 million	9.39	-$2.19 million	($0.16)	-9.38
ZTO Express (Cayman)	$7.02 billion	1.64	$1.30 billion	$1.86	11.08

ZTO Express (Cayman) has higher revenue and earnings than ETS. ETS is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ZTO Express (Cayman), indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares ETS and ZTO Express (Cayman)’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
ETS	-157.04%	-30.26%	-29.59%
ZTO Express (Cayman)	19.03%	15.90%	10.89%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

41.6% of ZTO Express (Cayman) shares are held by institutional investors. 24.9% of ETS shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 41.3% of ZTO Express (Cayman) shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

ZTO Express (Cayman) beats ETS on 13 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About ETS

Elite Express Holding Inc. is a holding company which conducts its operations through its wholly owned subsidiary, JAR Transportation Inc. It provides last-mile delivery services, primarily focused on transporting packages from distribution centers to end customers. Elite Express Holding Inc. is based in LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.

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.