ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) Raises Dividend to $0.37 Per Share

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO – Get Rating) declared a — dividend on Friday, March 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.37 per share by the transportation company on Friday, April 28th. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 5th. This is a positive change from ZTO Express (Cayman)’s previous — dividend of $0.25.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Price Performance

NYSE ZTO opened at $28.45 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13, a current ratio of 1.59 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.02. ZTO Express has a 52-week low of $16.27 and a 52-week high of $29.79.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 15th. The transportation company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $9.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.01 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a net margin of 19.09% and a return on equity of 13.56%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that ZTO Express will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on ZTO shares. TheStreet raised shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 29th. HSBC raised their price objective on shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from $33.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from $40.30 to $32.80 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 23rd. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) in a research report on Thursday. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.60.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ZTO Express (Cayman)

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ZTO. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 63.9% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,599,212 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $139,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,182,319 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 50.9% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,783,400 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $119,586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,612,528 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1,421.9% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 1,118,062 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $27,951,000 after purchasing an additional 1,044,595 shares during the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 5,514.0% during the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 791,577 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $19,790,000 after purchasing an additional 777,477 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP grew its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 52.0% during the first quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 1,890,349 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $47,259,000 after purchasing an additional 646,490 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 40.56% of the company’s stock.

About ZTO Express (Cayman)

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ZTO Express (Cayman), Inc provides comprehensive logistics services. It offers express delivery and value-added logistics services through a nationwide network partner. The firm also provides digital and privacy waybill and cloud printing. The company was founded by Mei Song Lai on May 8, 2002 and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.