Right now, Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ:HBAN) share price is at $12.60, after a 2.55% drop. Over the past month, the stock spiked by 4.83%, but over the past year, it actually decreased by 17.81%. 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 from its 52 week low by 84.75%. Assuming that all other factors are held constant, this could present itself as an opportunity for investors trying to diversify their portfolio with Banks stocks, and capitalize on the lower share price observed over the year. 

The P/E ratio measures the current share price to the company's earnings per share. It is used by long-term investors to analyze the company’s current performance against its past earnings, historical data and aggregate market data for the industry or the indices, such as S&P 500. A higher P/E indicates that investors expect the company to perform better in the future, and the stock is probably overvalued, but not necessarily. It also shows that investors are willing to pay a higher share price currently, because they expect the company to perform better in the upcoming quarters. This leads investors to also remain optimistic about rising dividends in the future. 

Depending on the particular phase of a business cycle, some industries will perform better than others. 

Huntington Bancshares Inc. has a better P/E ratio of 18.21 than the aggregate P/E ratio of 16.13 of the Banks industry. Ideally, one might believe that Huntington Bancshares 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 price to earnings 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.