In the current market session, Mantech Intl Inc. MANT is trading at $74.77, after a 1.05% drop. However, over the past month, the stock increased by 6.42%, and in the past year, by 17.89%. Shareholders might be interested in knowing whether the stock is overvalued, even if the company is not performing up to par in the current session.

Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for shareholders trying to capitalize on the higher share price. The stock is currently below from its 52 week high by 20.45%.

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 indicates that shareholders do not expect the stock to perform better in the future, and that the company is probably undervalued. 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.

Mantech Intl Inc. has a better P/E ratio of 25.1 than the aggregate P/E ratio of 18.61 of the Software—Application industry. Ideally, one might believe that Mantech Intl Inc. might perform better in the future than it’s industry group, but it’s probable that the stock is overvalued.

There are many limitations to P/E ratio. It is sometimes difficult to determine the nature of the earnings makeup of a company. Shareholders might not get what they're looking for, from trailing earnings.