In the current session, the stock is trading at $382.09, after a 3.89% increase. Over the past month, Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) stock increased by 17.17%, and in the past year, by 29.61%. 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.

How Does Amgen P/E Compare to Other Companies?

The P/E ratio measures the current share price to the company's EPS. It is used by long-term investors to analyze the company's current performance against it's 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 could indicate 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.

Compared to the aggregate P/E ratio of the 150.8 in the Biotechnology industry, Amgen Inc. has a lower P/E ratio of 25.85. Shareholders might be inclined to think that the stock might perform worse than it's industry peers. It's also possible that the stock is undervalued.