ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. Declares Semi-annual Dividend of $0.35 (NYSE:ZTO)

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) announced a semi-annual dividend on Thursday, March 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.35 per share by the transportation company on Tuesday, April 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th.

ZTO Express (Cayman) has a dividend payout ratio of 34.7% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ZTO Express (Cayman) to earn $1.71 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.70 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.9%.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Stock Down 7.3 %

Shares of NYSE ZTO traded down $1.60 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $20.17. 4,347,457 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,084,103. The firm has a market cap of $12.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.13. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.99. ZTO Express has a 1-year low of $17.89 and a 1-year high of $27.50.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.73 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 20.56%. Analysts anticipate that ZTO Express will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ZTO has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. HSBC downgraded ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $28.00 to $20.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.78.

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.