“We will continue to remain opportunistic for the remainder of the year as it relates to share buybacks.”

In context

“dy momentum drove these results. Turning to Page 14. In Q1, we saw strong double-digit OI and gross profit dollar growth of more than $380 million driven by top line strength and ongoing cost efficiency. It is important to note that the impact of cost inflation will be a more significant headwind in the remaining quarters than what we saw in Q1 as a result of our favorable cocoa pipeline compared to the current market prices. Next, to EPS on Slide 15. Q1 EPS grew more than 16% in constant currency. Most of this growth was driven by operating gains. And despite some currency headwinds, we grew adjusted EPS as reported ForEx by 10.5%. Turning to Slide 16 and cash flow. We delivered $1 billion of free cash flow for the quarter. We also repurchased $600 million in stock during the quarter. We will continue to remain opportunistic for the remainder of the year as it relates to share buybacks. Our balance sheet also remains strong as leverage ended at about 2.5x. Before moving to our outlook, let me take a moment to discuss cocoa on Slide 18. First, our coverage strategies have proven advantageous versus market dynamics in the last few months. We are fully covered for '24 and also for a portion of half 1 2025. Typically, we are covered for 12-plus months, but given recent volatility, we have remained slightly shorter in duration. Our teams continue to monitor the market very closely to put ourselves in the best position possible. It is obvious that the series of conditions of both supply and demand side have driven costs up at unprecedented levels. We believe there will eventually be a market adjustment. And while we want to protect ourselves, we are putting in place flexible”