Right now, Amedisys Inc. AMED share price is at $168.88, after a 1.22% drop. Over the past month, the stock went up by 16.83%, but over the past year, it actually fell by 33.61%. 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 above its 52 week low by 22.54%. Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for investors trying to diversify their portfolio with Health Care Providers & Services 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.

Amedisys Inc. has a lower P/E than the aggregate P/E of 33.08 of the Health Care Providers & Services industry. Ideally, one might believe that the stock might perform worse than its peers, but it's also probable 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.