In the current session, Greenbrier Companies Inc. GBX is trading at $48.69, after a 2.23% gain. Over the past month, the stock increased by 14.48%, and in the past year, by 35.78%. With performance like this, long-term shareholders are optimistic but others are more likely to look into the price-to-earnings ratio to see if the stock might be overvalued.

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 under from its 52 week high by 3.03%.

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.

Greenbrier Companies Inc. has a better P/E ratio of 49.61 than the aggregate P/E ratio of 23.95 of the Machinery industry. Ideally, one might believe that Greenbrier Companies Inc. might perform better in the future than it's industry group, but it's probable that the stock is overvalued.

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.