“Operating cash flow for the first quarter was up 9% to $7 billion, while free cash flow was up 21% to $5.7 billion and I expect that we will see a very good result in our free cash flow for the rest of the year.”

In context

“nsure our gross margin percentages expand as we scale up. To this point, gross profit dollars of cloud services and license support grew 9% in Q1. Non-GAAP operating income was $5.1 billion, up 12% from last year. The operating margin was 41%, up from 39% last year. As we continue to benefit from economies of scale in the cloud and drive Cerner profitability to Oracle standards, we will not only continue to grow operating income, but we will also grow the operating margin percentage. The non-GAAP tax rate for the quarter was 18.8%, and non-GAAP EPS was $1.19 in US dollars, up 16% in USD, up 14% in constant currency. The GAAP EPS was $0.86 in USD. At quarter end, we had nearly $12.1 billion in cash and marketable securities. The short-term deferred revenue balance was $11.1 billion, up 5%. Operating cash flow for the first quarter was up 9% to $7 billion, while free cash flow was up 21% to $5.7 billion and I expect that we will see a very good result in our free cash flow for the rest of the year. Over the last four quarters, operating cash flow was $17.7 billion, up 68% and free cash flow was $9.5 billion, up 76%. Capital expenditures were $8.3 billion over the last four quarters and we are clearly beginning to see the cash flow benefits stemming from our cloud transformation. CapEx was $1.3 billion in Q1 as we continue to build capacity for bookings and our customers’ growing needs. Given the demand we have and see in the pipeline, I expect that fiscal year 2024 CapEx will be similar to this past year's CapEx. As always, we remain careful to pace our investments appropriately and in line with booking trends, which is why our gross margins are up in our cloud business. We now have 64 cloud regions live with 44 public cloud regions around the world and another six being built, 12 o”