ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO – Get Rating) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The transportation company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.02, Yahoo Finance reports. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a net margin of 19.09% and a return on equity of 13.56%. The company had revenue of $9.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.01 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.34 earnings per share. ZTO Express (Cayman)’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.1% compared to the same quarter last year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Stock Up 1.6 %

ZTO opened at $28.45 on Friday. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $27.02 and its 200 day moving average is $25.04. ZTO Express has a fifty-two week low of $16.27 and a fifty-two week high of $29.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 0.02.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 6th will be given a dividend of $0.37 per share. This is a positive change from ZTO Express (Cayman)’s previous — dividend of $0.25. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 5th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ZTO. Creative Planning increased its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. Creative Planning now owns 9,009 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $242,000 after buying an additional 452 shares during the last quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 26.2% during the fourth quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 2,248 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $61,000 after buying an additional 466 shares during the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp increased its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 4.7% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,198 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $293,000 after buying an additional 544 shares during the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 58,803 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,580,000 after buying an additional 770 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors purchased a new position in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) in the second quarter worth about $36,000. 40.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.