The networking giant’s shares carry a premium price tag, but a look at future earnings reveals a different story about what investors are actually paying for growth.

Arista Networks (ANET) is at the center of the AI buildout, supplying the high-speed switches that connect thousands of specialized processors into a single supercomputer. That central role has pushed its stock to a price that, on the surface, looks expensive. Trading at about 58.8 times the last twelve months of reported earnings, it’s the kind of multiple that makes many investors stop looking.

But that headline number is misleading. The valuation story changes when you consider the earnings the business is expected to generate in the future. On that basis, the stock…