Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 50,000 ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE:ZTO) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 50,000 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $978,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pzena Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in ZTO Express (Cayman) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 7,860,285 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $153,669,000 after buying an additional 820,686 shares in the last quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. lifted its position in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Greenwoods Asset Management Hong Kong Ltd. now owns 6,617,077 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $129,364,000 after purchasing an additional 633,604 shares in the last quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP lifted its position in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 1.1% in the fourth 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. Todd Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 36.5% in the fourth quarter. Todd Asset Management LLC now owns 1,345,583 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $26,306,000 after purchasing an additional 359,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) by 831.6% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,168,821 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $22,850,000 after purchasing an additional 1,043,359 shares in the last quarter. 41.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Stock Performance

Shares of ZTO opened at $18.74 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $11.21 billion, a PE ratio of 12.92, a PEG ratio of 1.03 and a beta of -0.14. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $19.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.58. ZTO Express has a twelve month low of $16.34 and a twelve month high of $27.50.

ZTO Express (Cayman) (NYSE:ZTO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 18th. The transportation company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $1.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.73 billion. ZTO Express (Cayman) had a net margin of 20.56% and a return on equity of 15.44%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ZTO Express will post 1.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ZTO Express (Cayman) Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 29th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 10th. ZTO Express (Cayman)’s payout ratio is presently 45.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ZTO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. HSBC raised shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of ZTO Express (Cayman) from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. 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 research report on Thursday, March 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, ZTO Express (Cayman) presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.28.

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.