in the current market session south jersey indus inc nysesji is trading at 2340 after a 021 gain however over the past month the stock fell by 443 and in the past year by 768 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 1277 assuming that all other factors are held constant this could present itself as an opportunity for investors trying to diversify their portfolio with gas utilities stocks and capitalize on the lower share price observed over the year check out this insiders buy more than 170m of 4 stocks the pe ratio is used by longterm shareholders to assess the companys market performance against aggregate market data historical earnings and the industry at large a lower pe can either represent a companys 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 most often an industry will prevail in a particular phase of a business cycle than other industries south jersey indus inc has a better pe ratio of 3072 than the aggregate pe ratio of 1825 of the gas utilities industry ideally one might believe that south jersey indus inc might perform better in the future than its industry group but its probable that the stock is overvalued there are many limitations to pe ratio it is sometimes difficult to determine the nature of the earnings makeup of a company shareholders might not get what theyre looking for from trailing earnings