ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) Declares 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. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th.

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

Shares of NYSE:ZTO traded down $1.60 during trading on Thursday, reaching $20.17. 4,347,761 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,084,103. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $19.48 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.99. ZTO Express has a 1-year low of $17.89 and a 1-year high of $27.50. The firm has a market cap 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.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last announced its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 anticipate that ZTO Express will post 1.57 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on ZTO. 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. HSBC lowered ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $28.00 to $20.00 in a research note 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, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $23.00 in a report on Thursday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, ZTO Express (Cayman) presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average 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.