You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: I will then review our segment performance.
Ademir will follow with a discussion of our consolidated results and financial position.
Finally, I will conclude with comments on our outlook and key takeaways.
Overall, fiscal first quarter results were ahead of our expectations on several fronts reflecting stronger-than-anticipated demand and solid operational execution, particularly at our Electronics, Engraving and Scientific segments.
Consolidated revenue increased 8.5% sequentially.
This is ahead of the outlook we provided previously of fiscal first quarter 2021 revenue being flat to slightly above the fourth quarter of 2020.
At the Electronics segment, revenue increased 23% sequentially and 18.6% year-on-year, reflecting positive trends in magnetics as well as contribution from the recent Renco acquisition.
Sequentially, Engraving operating margin increased 800 basis points to 16.1% due to cost efficiency and productivity initiatives on 15.1% revenue growth compared to fiscal fourth quarter 2020.
Finally, the Scientific segment reported its highest quarterly sales ever at $16.7 million.
Earlier this year, we divested our Refrigerated Solutions business and established Scientific as a stand-alone reporting segment, both actions advancing our strategy to build our higher-margin segments.
In particular, the Scientific segment's results reflected increased demand for seasonal flu vaccine storage as well as initial sales related to potential COVID-19 vaccines.
In addition, our Electronics new business opportunity pipeline is healthy at $56 million across a wide variety of end markets.
We expect the sales contribution from this pipeline to grow sequentially on an annual basis.
In Engraving, we see continued opportunity in the tool finishing and soft trim tool laneways globally.
We are leveraging these top line trends with stronger operating disciplines in all businesses, complemented by several financial initiatives.
We are on track to deliver over $7 million in savings in fiscal 2021 from the actions we announced in the third quarter of fiscal 2020.
We also began to implement tax savings initiatives in the quarter, including optimizing our foreign tax credits.
We expect our tax-related actions to result in cash savings of $2 million to $3 million in fiscal 2021.
As a result, our tax rate in fiscal '21 is expected to be approximately 22% or 500 basis points lower than fiscal 2020.
We also expect to realize $1.5 million in cash savings in fiscal '21 due to our previously announced floating-to-fixed-rate interest swaps.
We continue to maintain a strong financial position with a solid balance sheet and significant liquidity supported by consistent free cash flow generation.
Standex has -- had approximately $206 million of available liquidity at the end of the fiscal first quarter with a net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA ratio of 1.1.
During the quarter, we generated free cash flow of $4.4 million.
We also continued our cash repatriation efforts with approximately $8 million repatriated in the first quarter.
We expect to repatriate $35 million in total in fiscal '21, which would result in $74 million in cash repatriated over the past two fiscal years.
In sum, we are off to a solid start and expect continued growth and margin improvements as we move through fiscal '21.
Our financial flexibility will continue to strengthen through free cash flow generation, cash repatriation and new tax initiatives.
In our fiscal second quarter of '21, we expect consolidated revenue to be flat to slightly above the first quarter with a slight-to-moderate increase in segment operating margin.
Electronics segment revenue increased $8.7 million or 18.6% year-on-year, reflecting a 3.9% organic growth rate with strength in the Magnetics product line and $5.9 million from the recent Renco acquisition or approximately 12.6%.
The balance of the revenue increase is related to foreign currency impact.
Adjusted operating income increased approximately $1 million or 12.7% year-on-year, reflecting operating leverage on the revenue growth, productivity initiatives and Renco Electronics' profit contribution, partially offset by inflationary material cost increases.
Our new business opportunities funnel has increased to $56 million and is expected to deliver $11 million of incremental sales in FY '21 across a broad range of end markets, including industrial, electrical vehicles, safety systems and military.
We are also very pleased with the pace of integration of our sales channels with Remco.
In three months, we've identified over $1 million of cross-selling opportunities in each other's accounts, ahead of our expectations.
In terms of our second quarter fiscal 2021 outlook, we expect revenue to be sequentially slightly higher and operating margin to be sequentially similar to the fiscal first quarter.
Our outlook assumes improvement in European and North American markets with Asia results slightly below fiscal first quarter of '21.
Revenue decreased approximately $2 million or 5.3% year-over-year, and operating income was lower by approximately $600,000 or 10.2%.
The results reflected the impact of COVID-19 on our end markets, partially mitigated by productivity and expense savings in the quarter.
However, sequentially from Q4 fiscal '20, Engraving reported a significant improvement as revenue increased 15.1% and operating margin improved 800 basis points, reflecting an overall increase in the level of customer activity combined with cost efficiency and productivity initiatives, which will continue with the segment.
Laneway sales are recovering quickly from Q4, growing by 27% sequentially to $11.7 million, nearly back to pre-COVID levels on strength in tool finishing offering and soft trim tools.
I'm pleased to see the progress our North American Engraving business has made improving labor management through standard work and better capacity planning.
Our Corporate VP of Operations, hired in February, is collaborating with business management to improve operating procedures and drive efficiencies.
In addition, the completion of our global ERP platform will allow additional analysis and improved performance management across all major global sites to further drive consistent performance.
As far as second quarter outlook on a sequential basis, Standex expects a slight revenue increase and continued improvement in operating margin in the fiscal second quarter of '21.
The expected revenue growth reflects an increased level of customer activity due to new automotive launches, along with continued introduction of soft trim tools and tool finishing offerings.
We expect to see continued margin improvement from the volume increase, combined with continued cost efficiencies and productivity initiatives.
Turning to slide six, the Scientific segment.
Scientific segment revenue increased approximately $1.9 million or 13% year-on-year, reflecting organic growth in end markets, especially retail pharmaceutical chains.
The sales growth reflects distribution and storage of vaccine for the coming flu season as well as a few initial orders for COVID vaccine storage.
Operating income increased approximately $400,000 or 10% year-over-year, reflecting revenue growth, partially offset with reinvestments in the business for future growth opportunities.
The picture highlights our under-counter cabinet used for storage of refrigerated and frozen medications and vaccines.
Standex is well positioned with strong distribution channels for a leading role in a potential COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
In the second quarter, we expect to see a sequential and year-on-year revenue increase, driven primarily by continued positive trends in retail pharmaceutical chains and clinical end markets, and accelerated by the expected rollout of a national COVID vaccine.
We expect operating margin to slightly improve, reflecting volume increase, balanced with reinvestment for future growth opportunities.
Looking further, we expect Scientific revenue growth sequentially and year-on-year in fiscal '21 with approximately $10 million to $20 million of incremental sales to support COVID vaccine storage.
Turning to the Engineering Technologies segment on slide seven.
As expected, Engineering Technologies had a challenging quarter.
Revenue and operating income decreased $7 million or 28.4% and $2.9 million or 86% year-on-year, respectively.
The first quarter results reflected the economic impact of COVID-19 on the commercial aviation market, especially engine parts manufacturing.
However, we continue to experience positive trends in the unmanned segment of the space industry and defense sales.
In our second quarter, we expect revenue to be sequentially similar to the first quarter as a result of continued weakness in the Aviation end market.
Operating margin is expected to increase slightly sequentially despite Aviation end market trends as a result of productivity initiatives, and cost reduction activities, which are ongoing.
We are pleased to show the progress of our efforts to expand capacity in our Billerica plant using lean processes.
As a result of set of time reduction, improved layouts and process improvements, we have increased throughput 20%, positioning us well to support continued growth in our space end markets and deliver higher margins.
Specialty Solutions revenue and operating income decreased year-on-year, although is in line with our expectations that results would be sequentially similar to the fiscal fourth quarter of 2020.
Revenue decreased approximately $6.2 million or 19.7% year-over-year.
The decrease was primarily associated with the economic impact of COVID-19 on several end markets, including the food service equipment and hospitality industries at the Pumps and Merchandising businesses and the dump markets at Hydraulics.
Operating income decreased approximately $1.7 million or 30.9% year-over-year, reflecting lower volume, partially mitigated by cost reduction efforts.
To partially offset these trends, we pursued additional opportunities focused on strengthening the segment's margin profile.
We continue to allocate hydraulics capacity to higher-value opportunities, particularly aftermarket sales.
We have also closed a Pumps operation in Ireland and outsourced the components previously manufactured there to save approximately $1 million annually.
The other end markets are down from the effect of COVID-19.
The businesses continued to utilize our growth discipline processes to work with customers on promising future opportunities.
The example pictured here is a pump control system that houses eight pumps along with the electronic controls and diagnostics.
This is a good example of the business using a structured approach to explore new growth opportunities in an inexpensive manner.
As far as outlook, in fiscal quarter -- the second quarter 2021, we expect revenue and operating margin to decline slightly sequentially due to normal seasonality and the lower number of shipping days in the quarter.
First, I will provide a few key financial takeaways from our fiscal first quarter 2021 results.
Overall, results were ahead of our expectations, specifically revenue at Electronics and Scientific segments was higher than anticipated.
Strength in the Magnetics product line at our Electronics segment and vaccine-related storage demand at our Scientific segment benefited results in the quarter.
In addition, our cost efficiency and operational initiatives, which will continue throughout the fiscal year, are providing a tailwind to our results.
As previously communicated, we are well positioned to deliver over $7 million in annual savings related to cost actions.
Our financial position remains strong with substantial liquidity and low leverage, complemented by consistent cash flow generation and ongoing cash repatriation efforts.
In addition, we have also implemented several initiatives in the area of tax planning and interest expense that will further add to our cash position.
On a consolidated basis, total revenue declined 3% year-on-year to $151.3 million.
This reflects organic revenue decline of 8.2% year-on-year, mostly due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we expected, this impact was felt primarily at Engineering Technologies segment due to weakness in the Aviation end market, and at the Specialty Solutions segment due to weakness in the food service equipment and hospitality industries.
The Renco acquisition, which closed in early July, contributed revenue of $5.9 million or a 3.8% offset to the organic revenue decline.
In addition, FX contributed 1.4% offset to the organic revenue decline.
Gross margin decreased 70 basis points, primarily due to a decline in volume and increased material costs year-on-year, mostly in Electronics.
On a sequential basis, gross margin increased 290 basis points reflecting cost outcome productivity actions and favorable product mix.
Our adjusted operating margin was 11% compared to 11.3% a year ago.
Interest expense decreased approximately $600,000 year-on-year mostly due to lower overall interest rate as a result of the variable-to-fixed-rate swap we implemented in the fiscal third quarter of 2020.
In addition, the tax rate of 22% in the quarter represents 580 basis points decrease year-on-year, largely due to various tax planning strategies we have started to implement.
Adjusted earnings per share were $0.96 in the first quarter of 2021 compared to $0.91 in the first quarter of 2020.
We remain a consistent generator of free cash flow.
We reported free cash flow of $4.4 million compared to $2.8 million in the first quarter of 2020.
This increase primarily reflects a lower capital spending with $4.8 million in the first quarter of 2021 compared to $6.7 million a year ago.
Capital investments in the first quarter of '21 were focused on maintenance, safety and our highest priority growth initiatives.
Standex had net debt of $106.2 million at the end of September compared to $80.3 million at the end of June of 2020.
Increase in net debt is due to the Renco acquisition, which was financed with cash on hand.
Net debt for the first quarter of 2021 consisted primarily of long-term debt of $200 million and cash and cash equivalents of $93.7 million, out of which $75.7 million was held back for in subs.
We also had approximately $206 million of available liquidity at the end of September.
The company's net debt-to-adjusted EBITDA leverage was 1.1 with a net debt-to-total capital ratio of 18.2%, and interest coverage ratio of approximately 9.9 times.
We also continue to proactively identify opportunities to further add to our financial strength.
We have started to implement several tax planning and saving initiatives, including implementation of strategies to optimize U.S. tax cost on global intangible low tax income, implementation of various foreign tax credit optimization strategies that are expected to provide us the ability to utilize additional credit, and the filing for amended returns to take advantage of regulations that have recently been finalized.
As a result, our tax rate in fiscal 2021 is expected to be approximately 22% or 500 basis points lower than fiscal 2020.
We expect these actions will result in cash savings of $2 million to $3 million in fiscal 2021.
We also expect approximately $1.5 million in annual interest expense savings due to the previously announced floating-to-fixed-rate interest swaps.
We also repatriated $8 million in the first quarter and expect to repatriate $35 million this fiscal year.
From a capital allocation perspective, we had an active quarter.
Earlier in the quarter, we announced the acquisition of Renco Electronics for approximately $28 million, which was financed with cash on hand.
We also repurchased approximately 87,000 shares for $5.1 million in the quarter.
There's approximately $38 million remaining under the Board's current repurchase authorization.
We declared our 225th consecutive quarterly dividend of $0.24 per share, a year -- a 9% year-over-year increase.
And finally, we expect capital expenditures to be approximately $25 million to $28 million compared to a prior expected range of between $28 million to $30 million and actual expenditures of $19 million in fiscal 2020.
In the second quarter of fiscal 2021, we expect consolidated revenue to be flat to slightly above the first quarter of 2021 with a slight-to-moderate increase in operating margin.
Several assumptions underpin this outlook.
We expect the Electronics and Engraving segments to have a slight sequential revenue increase due to an increased level of customer activity.
At Scientific, we expect a moderate sequential revenue increase as end market momentum builds to prepare for vaccine delivery.
Engineering Technologies revenue is expected to be similar to fiscal first quarter 2021 as commercial aviation markets stabilize, with a slight increase in operating margin from productivity and cost reduction activities.
At Specialty Solutions, we expect revenue and operating margin to decrease slightly, primarily due to seasonality and a lower number of shipping days in the quarter.
In general, we expect continued growth and margin improvement as we move through fiscal 2021.
In addition, we see attractive growth opportunities across the businesses.
In the near term, we anticipate the opportunity for COVID-19 vaccine storage to be between $10 million and $20 million in the fiscal year.
The growing funnel of opportunities in Electronics will deliver an incremental $11 million in sales in the fiscal year.
Previous cost actions complete and expected to deliver over $7 million in savings in fiscal '21.
Operational excellence initiatives are gaining momentum across all businesses.
We are also strengthening financial flexibility with strong free cash flow generation, continued cash repatriation and new tax initiatives.
In sum, we're very well positioned to further build our higher-margin business segments into more significant platforms with customized, differentiated solutions, supported by deep technical and applications expertise.

user
cost actions on track to deliver over $7 million in savings in fiscal 2021.
qtrly adjusted earnings per share $0.96.
in fiscal q2 2021, standex expects consolidated company revenue to be flat to slightly above fiscal q1 2021.
in fiscal q2 2021, company expects moderate sequential revenue increase at scientific as vaccine storage demand rises.
qtrly net sales $151.3 million versus $156.0 million.

assistant