“Collections have improved meaningfully in April, and we remain confident in our full year outlook.”

In context

“anded 200 basis points from pricing and productivity actions, a strong result in Process Automation and Technology despite the top line volatility. Adjusted earnings per share of $2.45 was up 11%, driven primarily by higher segment profit and lower share count. Foreign currency provided a modest benefit and below-the-line items were favorable primarily due to higher pension income. You'll find additional information on the first quarter adjusted EPS bridge in the appendix of our presentation. Running out the results, we ended the quarter with nearly $100 million of free cash flow, down from $200 million last year. The benefit of higher operational income was offset by timing of collections in the Middle East and inventory headwinds in Aerospace, given the mechanical supply chain dynamics. Collections have improved meaningfully in April, and we remain confident in our full year outlook. On capital deployment, we returned $1.8 billion to shareholders through roughly $1 billion of share repurchases and $800 million of dividends while funding over $220 million in CapEx to drive future growth. Let's now turn to Slide 7 to discuss our second quarter guidance. We anticipate second quarter organic sales growth of 2% to 4%. Aerospace should improve sequentially from first quarter, driven by ramping OE production rates and higher defense spend, supported by incremental improvements in the supply chain, while Process Automation Technology will be slightly weaker than first quarter due to incremental pressure stemming from the Middle East conflict. Both Building Automation and Industrial expect to be roughly in line with their full year outlook for these businesses. We expect segme”