ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) Receives $23.28 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the five brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.28.

A number of research firms have issued reports on ZTO. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut ZTO Express (Cayman) from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 20th. HSBC upgraded ZTO Express (Cayman) from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, April 14th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 106.4% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,288 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 664 shares during the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 70.8% in the first quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,132 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 884 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 119.8% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 5,061 shares of the transportation company's stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 2,758 shares during the period. U S Global Investors Inc. increased its position in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 47.0% in the 1st quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 10,101 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $200,000 after acquiring an additional 3,229 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its stake in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 10,282 shares of the transportation company's stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 41.65% of the company's stock.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Trading Down 0.5 %

ZTO Express (Cayman) stock traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $18.79. 314,520 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,820,924. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.14. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $19.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.79. ZTO Express has a fifty-two week low of $16.34 and a fifty-two week high of $27.50.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.02). ZTO Express (Cayman) had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 20.56%. The business had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.73 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that ZTO Express will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th were issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. ZTO Express (Cayman)'s payout ratio is currently 45.95%.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Company Profile

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.