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

ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) declared a semi-annual dividend on Tuesday, March 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors 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 yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th.

ZTO Express (Cayman) has a payout ratio of 34.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research 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) Trading Down 7.3 %

ZTO traded down $1.60 on Thursday, reaching $20.17. The company had a trading volume of 4,347,761 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,084,104. The company has a fifty day moving average of $19.48 and a 200-day moving average of $20.99. The company has a market capitalization of $12.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.91, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.13. ZTO Express has a one year low of $17.89 and a one 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 for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.03). ZTO Express (Cayman) had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 15.44%. The business had revenue of $1.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.73 billion. Research analysts predict that ZTO Express will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.78.

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.