Looking into the current session, Jack In The Box Inc. JACK shares are trading at $86.65, after a 1.59% increase. Moreover, over the past month, the stock spiked by 4.90%, but in the past year, decreased by 5.60%. Shareholders might be interested in knowing whether the stock is undervalued, even if the company is performing up to par in the current session.

The stock is currently above its 52 week low by 12.34%. Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for investors trying to diversify their portfolio with Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure 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.

Compared to the aggregate P/E ratio of the 58.39 in the Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure industry, Jack In The Box Inc. has a lower P/E ratio of 11.57. Shareholders might be inclined to think that the stock might perform worse than its industry peers. It's also possible that the stock is undervalued.

Price to earnings 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.