ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) Shares Gap Up Following Dividend Announcement

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) gapped up before the market opened on Wednesday after the company announced a dividend. The stock had previously closed at $21.30, but opened at $21.90. ZTO Express (Cayman) shares last traded at $21.94, with a volume of 468,590 shares.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a $0.35 dividend. This represents a yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. ZTO Express (Cayman)’s payout ratio is 46.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

ZTO Express (Cayman) Trading Down 7.3 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $12.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.13. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.98.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, March 18th. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.47 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $1.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.73 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 15.44%. As a group, research analysts forecast that ZTO Express will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ZTO Express (Cayman)

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $153,669,000 after acquiring an additional 820,686 shares in the last quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. now owns 6,617,077 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $129,364,000 after purchasing an additional 633,604 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 10.0% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,484,318 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $86,307,000 after purchasing an additional 317,450 shares during the period. Hhlr Advisors LTD. grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 8,172.7% during the third quarter. Hhlr Advisors LTD. now owns 3,003,008 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $74,385,000 after purchasing an additional 2,966,708 shares during the period. Finally, Brandes Investment Partners LP grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,395,333 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $46,829,000 after purchasing an additional 24,903 shares during the period. 41.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.