 In the current session, American Public Education Inc. NASDAQ: APEI is trading at 37.75, after a 21 surge. Over the past month, the stock increased by 30.35, and in the past year, by 42.40. With performance like this, long-term shareholders 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 higher from its 52 week high by 9.01.The PE ratio is used by long-term shareholders to assess the companys market performance against aggregate market data, historical earnings, and the industry at large. A lower PE 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.View more earnings on APEIDepending on the particular phase of a business cycle, some industries will perform better than others.Compared to the aggregate PE ratio of the 381.48 in the Education Training Services industry, American Public Education Inc. has a lower PE ratio of 43.33. Shareholders might be inclined to think that they might perform worse than its industry peers. Its also possible that the stock is undervalued.Price to earnings ratio is not always a great indicator of the companys performance. Depending on the earnings makeup of a company, investors may not be able to attain key insights from trailing earnings.See more from Benzinga Stocks That Hit 52-Week Highs On TuesdayC 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. 