ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) Shares Bought by Quantbot Technologies LP

Quantbot Technologies LP grew its stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) by 414.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 138,369 shares of the transportation company’s stock after acquiring an additional 111,487 shares during the quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in ZTO Express (Cayman) were worth $2,705,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ZTO. Natixis Advisors LLC increased its position in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 64,943 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,270,000 after purchasing an additional 918 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP increased its position in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 2,395,333 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $46,829,000 after purchasing an additional 24,903 shares in the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel increased its position in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 136,900 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,676,000 after purchasing an additional 7,608 shares in the last quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH increased its position in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Erste Asset Management GmbH now owns 214,876 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,265,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 75.8% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 619,134 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $12,104,000 after purchasing an additional 266,981 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 41.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms 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 research report on Tuesday, January 21st. HSBC downgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $20.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.78.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Stock Down 0.4 %

NYSE ZTO opened at $20.06 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $12.12 billion, a PE ratio of 13.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.13. ZTO Express has a fifty-two week low of $17.89 and a fifty-two week high of $27.50. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $19.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.96.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last released 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 $0.46 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.73 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a return on equity of 15.44% and a net margin of 20.56%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that ZTO Express will post 1.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. ZTO Express (Cayman)’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.90%.

About ZTO Express (Cayman)

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.