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: These are important to review and contemplate as everyone on the call today is well aware, business environment uncertainty remains tightened due to COVID-19.
These items include shutdown impacts from many areas of the economy, ongoing changes to consumer purchasing habits, the potential for disruptive supply chain, heightened unemployment and many other economic factors.
This means that results could change at any time and the forecasted impact of risk considerations is the best estimate based on the information available as of today's date.
Additional information concerning risk factors and cautionary statements are available in our most recent SEC filings and most recent company 10-K.
I'll now hand it over to our CEO, Ron Lombardi.
Let's start on slide five.
I'm pleased to report our long-term strategy and business positioning continued to deliver solid results as seen in Q2, where we experienced strong earnings growth and a stable revenue performance.
We continue to focus on the critical near-term factors that I've previously discussed in order to successfully navigate the pandemic environment.
For starters, our long-term strategy of providing consumers with a wide range of brands they know and trust continues to work.
In this unique time, we continue to see consumers turn to our leading brands to meet their healthcare needs.
Meanwhile, our business continuity efforts have been paying off.
We continue to work closely with our manufacturing partners to ensure consistent service levels in this tight supply environment.
In Q2, we continue to find effective ways to optimize our brands during the pandemic as consumer habits have begun to stabilize.
We are benefiting from these agile investments in channels such as e-commerce, and our portfolio remains well positioned for the long time.
Finally, our strong operating model and disciplined capital strategy continue to reward stakeholders.
We continue to use our industry-leading financial profile to further reduce debt in the quarter.
We have reduced leverage levels to the lowest point since 2014, which continues to increase our capital allocation optionality.
So to recap, we continue to feel good about our positioning and the agile adjustments made during COVID-19.
Q2 performance reinforces the strength of our business, and we look forward to further benefits.
I'll now hand it over to Chris to review Q2 financial results.
Q2 revenue of $237.4 million declined 50 basis points on an organic basis versus the prior year, which excludes the effects of foreign currency.
By segment, North America revenues were up 1.3%, positively impacted by the women's health analgesics, Oral Care and ear and eye care categories, partially offset by lower cough and cold and GI shipments at certain categories we participate in face declines in incidence levels and usage rates related to COVID-19.
Our international business declined approximately 16% after excluding foreign currency.
This decline was primarily attributable to significantly lower sales of Hydralyte in Australia as a result of COVID-19's impact to lowering both general consumer illness and activities such as athletic.
We anticipate headwinds for the brand and the region to persist for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share for the second quarter grew approximately 5% and 15%, respectively, versus the prior year.
Solid earnings per share growth was attributable to lower G&A costs and lower interest expense from debt paydown.
Let's turn slide eight for more detail around consolidated results and first half performance.
For the first half, our revenues were down 60 basis points, excluding foreign currency.
Revenue growth continued to benefit from strong consumption trends in the e-commerce channel as consumers continue to shift to online purchasing.
We broadly benefited from strength in many brands in our portfolio, but did experience consumption declines in certain categories as a result of COVID-19, most notably the cough, cold and motion sickness categories.
Total company gross margin of 58% was flat to last year's adjusted gross margin and stable to recent quarters.
This was in line with our expectations for Q2 and also what we anticipate for the remainder of fiscal '21.
Advertising and marketing came in at 16.1% of revenue in Q2 and 14.2% for the first six months.
As anticipated, A&M returned to normalized levels in the second quarter.
We expect A&M for the full year to be just under 15% as a percent of sales as we continue at a normalized rate of spend in the second half.
G&A expenses declined both for Q2 and the first six months of fiscal '21 versus the prior year, owed largely to disciplined cost management.
For the full year, we anticipate G&A expenses to approximate 9% and remain below prior year in absolute dollars.
EPS for the first six months of fiscal '21 grew approximately 23% versus the prior year.
Lower operating costs, lower interest expense and lower share count were all contributors to the strong growth.
Finally, I'd like to provide a few additional comments on below the line items for your modeling purposes.
Moving forward, we anticipate our ongoing tax rate to approximate 24%, reflecting the recent finalization of tax code changes.
For the full year fiscal '21, we expect interest expense to approximate $83 million.
In the second quarter, we generated $43.1 million in free cash flow, which was lower than last year due to planned capex investments.
First half fiscal '21 total free cash flow of $115.7 million grew 18% versus the prior year.
In the second quarter, we continued to focus on debt reduction and paid down $74 million in debt.
At September quarter end, we had approximately $1.5 billion in net debt, which equated to a leverage ratio of 4.3 times.
We expect to continue to prioritize debt pay down as our primary use of free cash flow, followed by other opportunistic capital allocation decisions.
Despite the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, a few key factors underpin our strong financial results in the first half and have us well positioned for the balance of the year.
We continue to remain focused on safety and business continuity.
Our team members have adapted impressively to this vulnerable environment faced today.
This extends to our third-party suppliers who we continue to work closely with in a dynamic supply chain environment.
Ultimately, the objective of these efforts is to maintain a laser focus on service levels to our retail partners.
Although a continuing effort, I'm pleased to report that we've maintained a strong supply chain that's enabled to remain well stopped at retail.
Our broad and diverse portfolio is an invaluable core strength of our business.
Not only are we diversified, as shown on the left side of the page, but the vast majority of our key brands have a deep heritage in connection with consumers.
The majority of our key brands are number one in their category, which allows us to focus on meeting evolving consumer needs.
These factors provide us a great starting advantage as we navigate the impact of COVID-19.
We are leveraging these attributes and investing in our key brands for long-term success.
The strategy is working and is evident in our stable results for the first six months, where these factors helped to offset declines in certain categories like travel, sports activities and cost.
This diversification and leading positions have also found great tailwinds from various consumer trends during COVID-19.
For example, consumers have increased the use of health and hygiene-related products, while at the same time, being more cautious around time spent in public.
The result of this is an accelerated shift to e-commerce shopping, along with consumers increasing purchases of self care products.
Even further, consumers are seeking brands they know and trust during this recession.
We are well positioned to from these shifts.
First, we have the benefit of having many leading brands that help consumers treat health incidences at home.
We've reallocated marketing dollars to opportunities to help with self-care, like Monistat, Compound W and DenTek.
Our toolkit is wide ranging.
In this example, the end goal is to remind consumers how our leading brands help them avoid a doctor's visit.
Second, we benefited in a big way from consumers shifting additional purchases into e-commerce.
Our early investments in this channel over the last several years continues to pay off.
Finally, with 10 of our top dozen brands holding number one market shares, we have the fortunate position of being the trusted go-to brand for consumers in many categories.
We continue to benefit from these strengths, resulting in a stable business performance during the pandemic thus far.
Our multiyear investments around e-commerce are delivering impressive results.
These investments have led us to achieve market shares above our brick-and-mortar share in many categories.
In the second quarter and first six months, we were able to successfully engage with consumers as their spending patterns continue to shift online.
We experienced solid results that are direct results of our efforts and positioning with Q2 consumption e-commerce growing triple digits once again.
We've also experienced success in omnichannel consumer shopping.
As a leader in consumer healthcare e-commerce, we are pleased to continue to benefit from the growing interest in this channel by consumers.
We are continuing to make investments behind online content broadly with the goal of expanding our share of consumers.
The examples on the right side of the page are useful reminders that our investments are wide ranging.
Our Monistat.com web page was recently refreshed.
And since the refresh, the Monistat site has seen, on average, 300,000 visitors a month, including helping about 90,000 women a month self-diagnose infection with the brand's symptom checker.
This online tool is one of many examples where we go beyond supplying a product being a consumer's trusted connection as they research their healthcare needs.
We have also enhanced the marketing and communications around our brands that consumers are using at home.
Compound W is one example of this.
We are focused on expanding our leading position by using simple to understand marketing that reminds consumers of the ability to treat works effectively at home.
These strategies have resonated with consumers, enabling and expanding our strong number one market share position.
To recap, by remaining active and investing around e-commerce, our brands are set up for success.
As the pandemic continues to shift consumer preferences, this provides a great positioning for our brands to benefit.
We have achieved portfolio stability by rapidly transitioning our marketing efforts to adapt to the current environment.
We continue to adjust our brand-building strategy in real-time, focusing investments around current brand opportunities.
Our largest brand, Summer's Eve, is engaged in a multi-pronged marketing effort designed to grow household penetration with women over time.
With consumers staying at home, we refocused marketing efforts around home workouts for the recently launched Summer's Eve active product.
Omnichannel efforts have driven consumer awareness and positive feedback and Summer's Eve active is often listed as a best choice by Amazon when consumers research feminine wash.
This is just one of many efforts that is driving Summers Eve solid sales growth year-to-date.
On the right of the page, is Clear Eyes.
Brand messaging has evolved during the pandemic to emphasize the brand promise of having brighter, lighter and more comfortable eyes.
We focused on the concept of at home usage and are using time-tested brand building tactics.
Most recently, we have a new spokesperson, Supermodel Hilary Rhoda.
As a Clear Eyes user, she demonstrates the ability Clear Eyes has of giving a consumer great redness relief at a great price.
More than halfway through the year, our business positioning and execution of the strategy behind it have resulted in a stable top line performance that is driving meaningful cash flow and earnings growth.
The portfolio diversity and our business strategy highlighted today, position us to continue to maintain and grow market share across our key brands in coming quarters.
Given our recent stability, we are offering full year guidance based on the trends we are seeing today.
For the full fiscal year '21, we anticipate revenue of approximately $925 million.
This outlook reflects our assumption that the business trends and stability experienced in Q2 continues into the second half, along with a headwind in the second half during the peak season for cough and cold products.
Most importantly, we remain committed to our long-term brand building and investment strategy to position our portfolio for long-term sales growth.
We also anticipate adjusted earnings per share of approximately $3.18 in fiscal '21.
Our cost management efforts, along with the benefit of our capital allocation strategy and debt reduction, enabling full year earnings growth of high single digits.
Last, our strong and stable free cash flow remains a company's strength.
Free cash flow is expected to be at or above last year's level of $207 million.
As always, we intend to execute a disciplined capital allocation strategy with a near-term focus on debt reduction to drive shareholder value.

user
q2 revenue $237.4 million versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $227.4 million.
for revenue, anticipate fy'21 revenue of about $925 million.

assistant