Charted: AT&T's strategy is connecting

AT&T's stock hit a 3-year high today after the increasingly efficient company issued a promising earnings projection and announced plans to return more than $40 billion to shareholders over the next three years.

Between the lines: The telecommunications giant has been betting big on its core areas of wireless service and fiber-optic connectivity while taking steps to offload its non-core assets.

• AT&T CEO John Stankey has refocused the company since taking over in 2020, when it "was bloated with debt from media acquisitions and under pressure to expand its wireless service and broadband capabilities," Bloomberg reported.

The bottom line: AT&T shares are up over 37% on the year after rising 4.6% today.

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that AT&T plans to return $40 billion (not $40 million) to shareholders over three years.