Right now, J&J Snack Foods Inc. JJSF share price is at $153.55, after a 0.94% drop. Over the past month, the stock went up by 0.64%, but over the past year, it actually fell by 4.80%. With questionable short-term performance like this, and great long-term performance, long-term shareholders might want to start looking into the company's price-to-earnings ratio.

The stock is currently higher its 52 week low by 9.47%. Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for investors trying to diversify their portfolio with Food Products stocks, and capitalize on the lower share price observed over the year.

The P/E ratio is used by long-term shareholders to assess the company's market performance against aggregate market data, historical earnings, and the industry at large. A lower P/E can either represent a company's poor future earnings potential or a buying opportunity relative to other stocks. It shows that shareholders are less than willing to pay a high share price, because they do not expect the company to exhibit growth, in terms of future earnings.

Depending on the particular phase of a business cycle, some industries will perform better than others.

J&J Snack Foods Inc. has a better P/E ratio of 68.59 than the aggregate P/E ratio of 26.9 of the Food Products industry. Ideally, one might believe that J&J Snack Foods Inc. might perform better in the future than it's industry group, but it's probable that the stock is overvalued.

P/E ratio is not always a great indicator of the company's performance. Depending on the earnings makeup of a company, investors can become unable to attain key insights from trailing earnings.