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: References to margins and adjusted operating margins reflect the performance for the Americas and international segments.
We will refer to net service revenue or NSR, which is defined as revenue, excluding pass-through revenue.
As a reminder, we closed on the sale of the Power and Civil Construction businesses in October of 2020 and January 2021, respectively, and the sale of the oil and gas maintenance and turnaround services business in January 2022.
The financial results of these businesses are classified as discontinued operations in our financial statements.
Our results from discontinued operations include the oil and gas sale and adjustments to closing working capital estimates for previously completed transactions.
Lara Poloni, our president, will discuss key operational priorities; and Gaurav Kapoor, our chief financial officer, will review our financial performance and outlook in greater detail.
We will conclude with a question-and-answer session.
We are incredibly pleased with our first quarter performance, and momentum is building across our business and our markets.
Our success is a result of the passion and dedication that our teams bring to their work and clients every day.
This excellence was highlighted last week when Fortune reaffirmed our No.
1 industry ranking on its World's Most Admired Companies list.
The elements for uninterrupted multiyear infrastructure and ESG investment growth are well established.
and the global commitments by our clients to deliver on increasingly well-defined ESG objectives.
A global infrastructure investor renaissance is beginning.
And our strategy, focused on our teams, clients, communities and innovation has us better positioned than ever to win.
Through our expanded services, including advisory and program management, a greater share of a growing market is now addressable by AECOM, and we are working to shape the priorities of our clients and deliver value for our stakeholders.
Turning to our first quarter's results.
We exceeded our expectations on every key financial metric.
NSR increased by 5% with strong growth in both our Americas and international segments.
Importantly, we are winning work at the highest rate in the history of our company.
Wins totaled $3.6 billion with a 1.4 book-to-burn ratio in our Americas design business, and a 1.2 book-to-burn ratio across our global design business.
Our strong book-to-burn is worth emphasizing given our four quarters of consistent organic NSR growth.
We also had key wins in our construction management business, and our pipeline has never been stronger.
The segment adjusted operating margin increased by 60 basis points to 13.7%, reflecting continued investments in organic growth and innovation, the benefits of our highly efficient global delivery capabilities and the high value our teams are delivering for our clients.
Our margins lead our peers, but plenty of opportunity for improvement remains.
Our focus on deploying innovation and digital tools to transform how we deliver for clients against a backdrop of increasing demand for advisory and program management services supports our guidance for this year and our 17% longer-term margin target.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 10% and adjusted earnings per share increased by 44%.
Our earnings per share is benefiting from the execution of our focused strategy, strong operational performance and accelerating organic growth as well as from share repurchases.
Including $213 million of stock repurchases in the first quarter, we have now repurchased $1.2 billion of stock since September 2020, when we launched our repurchase program, or 14% of our outstanding shares.
This capital allocation benefit to shareholders is driven by our strong conversion of earnings to cash flow.
In fact, cash flow in the quarter was one of the highest in our company's history for a first quarter.
The attributes of our business, including a high returning and low-risk profile and a capital-light business model with a highly variable cost structure, underpin our expectations to consistently deliver strong cash flow and to deliver on our capital allocation priorities.
Reflecting this confidence, we initiated a quarterly dividend program in December and our first dividend payment occurred in January.
It is our intention to increase our per share dividend by a double-digit percentage annually.
This marks a milestone for our company's history and demonstrates our steadfast commitment to use capital allocation tools to maximize total shareholder return.
Please turn to the next slide for a discussion of the trends across our markets.
Beginning in the U.S., our largest market, conditions are strong.
Our federal, state and local clients are gearing up for several years of sustained increases in infrastructure investment, which includes the expected benefits of the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
This represents a generational investment in U.S. infrastructure and arrives at an opportune time.
Typically, federal support for infrastructure has been inversely correlated to state and local fiscal health.
However, our state and local clients, which account for nearly 25% of our NSR, are reporting record revenues and budget surpluses, which is resulting in a very favorable backdrop.
In addition, our public and private sector clients are increasingly prioritizing investments to advance ESG.
Today, nearly every project proposal has an element of ESG in its scope, and our clients are demanding more holistic thinking and a broader advisory relationship to help them achieve their multi-decade ambitions.
Our momentum and the expansion of our addressable market are apparent in our pipeline growth, which is up by double digits.
This is noteworthy when you consider how strong wins and backlog growth were this quarter.
The pipeline growth we are seeing is especially encouraging, considering the benefits of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aren't likely to be material until our fiscal 2023.
International markets are experiencing a very similar positive trajectory.
ESG is front and center in our clients' agendas and we are seeing strong demand for our advisory services and technical expertise.
Our pipeline increased by high single-digit percentage and our backlog increased in each of our largest international markets, highlighted by key transportation and infrastructure frameworks in the U.K., expanded program management roles in the Middle East and high win rates for key clients in the Asia Pacific region.
Looking ahead, the strong foundation we have built and favorable end market trends have positioned us well for sustained multiyear growth.
We spent the last two years narrowing our focus on our higher-margin, lower-risk professional services business and implementing our think and act globally strategy.
The strategy is built on our leading technical capabilities, global expertise, and on bringing new ways of solving our clients' biggest and most complex challenges with innovative digital solutions.
We continue to advance our digital AECOM strategy, and with our success, we are accelerating our investments in this area.
Over the course of the year as the solutions establish a market position, we will announce their launch similar to PlanEngage, which we announced last quarter.
PlanEngage, our digital platform that reinvests the public engagement process for an infrastructure project, is quickly being introduced as the platform for community engagement across our global client base.
As funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in the U.S. is connected with these projects later in 2023, our PlanEngage tool will become even more valuable.
Across our business, one theme is constant: Our investments will expand our advantage as demand grows and labor constraints challenge the industry.
We are consistently winning our largest and highest priority pursuits, with our win rate at all-time high levels.
For example, our leadership team identified 10 global pursuits that we deem to be a top priority for strategic positioning and for delivering on our accelerating growth expectations.
I'm very pleased to report that we've already won eight of these 10 projects, and two are still pending decisions.
In addition, we've had several other key wins over the past few quarters, including a nine-figure takeaway from a key competitor in an international market, a nine-figure takeaway from a key incumbent on a high-value U.S. federal environment program, and we have been selected for numerous other key pursuits that underpin our confidence.
I can't say enough about how our culture of winning and excellence has expanded and what it means for our future.
Please turn to the next slide.
I couldn't be more pleased with what we have accomplished to date and how well positioned we are for the future.
Against the backdrop of strong client demand and with our foundation for success now in place, we are taking action to fully capitalize on the opportunities ahead.
First, we are fostering a culture that celebrates winning.
This includes prioritizing our time and investments on the best growth opportunities and highest value pursuits.
As leaders in areas including electrification, transit systems, environmental assessment, remediation, water infrastructure, resilience, climate change and new energy, we are poised to benefit from our exposure to rapidly growing markets.
This is giving us the opportunity to also be selective and disciplined about the types of opportunities on which we invest time and capital with a focus on profitable growth and strong returns on capital.
Second, we are continuing to invest in program management and advisory capabilities.
Through these capabilities, we are expanding our addressable market opportunity by adding services that lead to earlier engagement with clients.
We have onboarded key talent to support several large wins over the past year, including the Neom and AlUla programs in Saudi Arabia.
Looking ahead, as the scope and complexity of infrastructure and ESG initiatives expand, high-value program management and advisory will take an even more central role in helping our clients and will distinguish AECOM in the market.
Third, we are investing in digital AECOM to develop and deliver products that extend the capabilities of our teams and transform how we engage with clients.
Our PlanEngage tool and commercialization of DE-FLUORO, our proprietary solution for the destruction of PFAS compounds, are great examples.
In addition, we are advancing the development of key digital solutions in the transportation and facilities market that will offer leading parametric and iterative design tools.
Finally and most importantly, we are investing in and building teams to deliver in a growing market, which will be increasingly important going forward.
We are focused on ensuring AECOM is the best place in our industry to build a career.
At this point, I am pleased to report that the results of our recent employee survey reflects our continued high levels of employee engagement.
Most notably, this included further increases in the percentage of employees that would recommend AECOM as a great place to work.
There is no higher acknowledgment of our commitment to building a great culture than this measure, and this gives us confidence we will remain at an advantage as the overall labor market tightens.
Please turn to the next slide.
We exceeded our expectations on every key financial metric in the first quarter.
We delivered another quarter of positive organic NSR growth, a record first quarter margin, double-digit adjusted EBITDA and earnings per share growth and one of the highest first quarter free cash flows in our company's history.
Tax was a $0.04 benefit to earnings per share compared to our plan due to the timing and quantum of discrete items.
We also delivered on our capital allocation commitments, including ongoing investments in our teams and digital AECOM, more than $200 million of share repurchases and the initiation of a quarterly dividend program.
The dividend is a complement to our share repurchases.
We have a strong balance sheet and highly predictable cash flow, which allows for investments in the business as well as consistently returning all available free cash flow to our shareholders.
Importantly, we are winning work at a high rate.
Our pipeline across the business is up double digits, and we have not yet begun to see material benefit from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Please turn to the next slide.
In the Americas, NSR increased by 3%, highlighted by growth in both the design and construction management businesses.
Our book-to-burn in the Americas design business was 1.4, and total backlog in design business increased by 5%, which continues to include a near-record level of contracted backlog, which provides for strong revenue visibility.
In addition, we are benefiting from strengthened conditions in our construction management business and believe backlog will increase over the course of the next year.
First quarter adjusted operating margin was 17.7%, a 30-basis-point increase from the prior year.
This result reflects both ongoing investments we are making to support growth and ongoing benefits from the actions taken to operate a more streamlined organization that delivers more efficiently.
Please turn to the next slide.
Turning to the international segment.
NSR increased by 7%, with growth across all of our largest regions.
Our wins were strong and backlog increased by 6%.
We continue to gain share in the U.K. public sector, are building our gains in the Middle East and have been successful on a number of key pursuits in Hong Kong and Australia.
Our adjusted operating margin in the first quarter was 8.2%, a 110-basis-point improvement from the prior year.
We are realizing the benefits of the actions we have taken to eliminate inefficiencies, regain market share and better scale our cost structure, including increasing utilization of our global shared service centers.
Please turn to the next slide.
Turning to cash flow, liquidity and capital allocation.
First quarter operating cash flow was $195 million and free cash flow was $163 million.
This was better than we expected and is consistent with our focus on delivering more consistent phasing throughout the year.
This improves our return on capital and allowed us to execute substantial repurchases earlier in the year as a result.
As Troy noted, our capital allocation policy is focused on returning substantially all free cash flow to investors in order to maximize total shareholder return and returns on capital.
This included the milestone announcement we made during the first quarter of the initiation of a quarterly dividend program and our intent to grow our per share dividend at a double-digit annual percentage.
Our first quarterly dividend payment was made on January 21.
The dividend is a testament to the steps we have taken over the past two years to reduce our financial and operational leverage, which has contributed to consistently strong earnings and cash flow.
As we look ahead, we continue to expect to convert our earnings to cash flow at a high rate, and we continue to expect free cash flow of between $450 million and $650 million in fiscal 2022.
As a reminder, our cash flow is typically weighted more strongly to the second half of the fiscal year, though we expect our first half cash flow to improve from the prior year.
Please turn to the next slide.
We are increasing our fiscal 2022 adjusted earnings per share guidance to between $3.30 and $3.50, which would reflect 21% growth at the midpoint.
This increase reflects operational outperformance we delivered in the first quarter, the benefits of our share repurchases completed in the first quarter and a lower-than-planned tax rate.
As a reminder, our adjusted earnings per share guidance only incorporates the benefit of already executed share repurchases, but we expect to continue to buy back stock as part of our capital allocation program.
We also continue to expect to deliver adjusted EBITDA of between $880 million and $920 million, which would reflect 8% growth at the midpoint of the range.
Based on our strong start to the year, we are also reaffirming our expectation for organic NSR growth of 6%, a segment adjusted operating margin of 14.1% and our long-term 2024 financial targets, including adjusted earnings per share of greater than $4.75 and approximately $700 million in free cash flow.
We expect our full year tax rate to be 25%, which incorporates the impact of our first quarter tax rate and the expectations for approximately 28% for the rest of the year.
Longer term, we expect our tax rate to be in the mid-20s.

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qtrly revenue decreased 1% to $3.3 billion.
sees diluted adjusted earnings per share guidance between $3.30 and $3.50 for fiscal 2022.

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