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: Second quarter adjusted income from continuing operations per diluted share increased to $0.82, up nearly 37% from the year ago quarter.
We generated significant operating leverage with adjusted EBITDA improving 17% year-over-year to $106.6 million and adjusted EBITDA margin increasing 100 basis points to 7.1% on slightly higher revenues.
We are pleased to note that for the first time in five quarters, growth in four of our key segments, B&I, T&M, Education and Technical Solutions more than offset the softness in Aviation which, while improved on a sequential basis, continue to reflect the impact of the pandemic.
In short, our second quarter performance reflected a consistently high level of operational execution by our team amid gradually improving business conditions, in sync with the reopening of the economy.
This strong showing and our current visibility have enabled us to increase our full-year guidance for adjusted earnings per share, while we continue to invest to support future growth.
Consistent with what we have discussed over the past several quarters, our customers continue to prioritize protecting their people and spaces, driving strong demand for our higher-margin virus disinfection work orders.
EnhancedClean, our proprietary and trusted protocols for cleaning and disinfecting spaces was an important contributor to our second quarter results as well.
We also continue to benefit from efficient labor management as our flexible labor model enabled us to identify and capitalize on staffing efficiencies arising from the adoption of remote and hybrid work environments, particularly within our B&I segment where office occupancy in large metropolitan areas remain relatively low.
As employees transition back to the office, we anticipate some easing in our labor efficiency, but we expect revenue growth in the second half of the year and increased work orders to mitigate that effect.
With our scale, capabilities, end market diversity and breadth of services, ABM remains well positioned for continued revenue and earnings growth as the reopening momentum continues.
There are several key trends that support our outlook for continued strong performance in the coming quarters.
First, our clients in both the office and manufacturing markets indicate they plan to continue to incorporate disinfection into their cleaning protocols as they prepare for the return of staff and workers to their offices and industrial facilities.
In fact, given the heightened concerns around pandemic risks and greater awareness of public health issues in general, we expect these specialized services to remain in demand and to become part of our client contracts.
ABM has been an essential partner in helping our customers navigate through the challenges of the past year and our 90%-plus retention rate, which ticked up in the second quarter speaks to the confidence our customers have in our services and capabilities.
Second, we expect continued sequential improvement in our Aviation segment, as pent-up demand for travel translates into higher demand for aviation services.
As Earl will discuss in his comments, we are transitioning our Aviation business mix to favor higher-margin contracts with airports and adjacent facilities, with less of a focus on airline services.
This strategic shift has created attractive growth opportunities for ABM outside of the airport, such as parking services and provides for a more consistent and more profitable business mix in our Aviation segment.
Additionally, we expect to see increased demand for disinfection and cleaning services in line with the pickup in travel activity.
Early signs of return to leisure travel have been encouraging and increased business travel is projected to follow later in the year and into next year.
Third, school districts have accelerated the return to in-person learning.
Our conversations with school district professionals and educational institutions indicate that with the full-time return to school expected this fall, cleaning and disinfecting will be a priority throughout the school year.
We expect these services to become part of the broader scope of services for new contracts and rebids, providing ABM with revenue and growth opportunities.
Finally, the energy efficiency and retrofit solutions that we offer in our Technical Services segment, our highest margin business, provide significant operating cost savings for our customers and enable them to reduce their environmental impact.
Now that we have greater access to client sites, we expect to increasingly work through our Technical Services backlog, which was at a record level at the end of the second quarter.
Additionally, this segment is well positioned to benefit from the new administration's priorities around decarbonization and energy efficiency.
As we look toward the second half of the fiscal year, we are confident that we can leverage our significant competitive advantages to achieve continued progress.
You may recall that at the very outset of the pandemic, we established 19 operational task forces or pods as we call them, to marshal our tremendous internal resources on the issues at hand, to focus on our virus disinfection offerings; our field operations; as well as finance, legal, liquidity, cash flow and human resources.
This task force model proved to be a fast and effective way of identifying potential business issues and utilizing cross-functional expertise to develop and implement solutions.
Given the success of these initiatives, we will continue to use this model to address emerging situations.
In fact, our human resources task force is now focused on recruiting and retention and will be instrumental in helping us manage utilization as additional staffing is required to accommodate increased occupancy levels.
Additionally, our strong balance sheet and robust cash flow provide us with substantial resources to fund investments to support future growth.
We invested in information technology initiatives during the first half of fiscal 2021 and we anticipate investing further during the second half of the year.
These investments in technology, data analytics and strategic initiatives are designed to strengthen our client relationships and further empower our employees.
While we will speak about these initiatives later in the year, I can share that we are currently piloting client-facing solutions using sensors to generate real-time occupancy data that inform our janitorial programs and allow us to share service delivery details with our clients via digital displays.
Additionally, we are expanding our use of technology to workforce management with a digital test management solution that records work performed and facilitates dynamic route changes to accommodate shifting client demand.
Lastly, the ABM brand is recognized worldwide, and our recent advertising campaign has served to reinforce the scale, scope and capabilities of our organization.
These attributes enabled us to step in immediately to provide our branded services to clients needing a safe environment for their employees and consumers.
The ABM brand is synonymous with this tremendous commitment to customer service, which is supported by our ability to deliver.
As we enter a post-pandemic environment, we believe the ABM brand will provide us with considerable competitive advantages across our business segments.
Turning now to the specifics of our outlook.
Given our strong performance in the first half and our expectations for continued year-over-year growth in the second half, we are maintaining our guidance for full-year fiscal 2021 GAAP income from continuing operations of $2.85 to $3.10 per diluted share, inclusive of a second quarter litigation reserve of $0.32.
At the same time, we are increasing our guidance for full-year 2021 adjusted income from continuing operations to $3.30 to $3.50 per diluted share, up from $3.00 to $3.25 previously.
This includes additional investments in client-facing technology and workforce management.
We're also increasing our outlook for adjusted EBITDA margin to a range of 7% to 7.3% from 6.6% to 7% previously.
We also ended the first half with robust new sales of $727 million, including $100 million associated with our EnhancedClean offerings, another first half record.
This supports our confidence in the Company's organic second half performance.
Additionally, we continue to explore acquisition opportunities where, as a strategic buyer, we would be able to drive meaningful revenue and operating synergies.
Over the past year, we have made tremendous operational progress and have proven our value as an essential partner to our clients during these dynamic and challenging times.
I've never been more inspired by our purpose, our team and our organization.
As we emerge from this difficult period, I am so pleased with our performance and are more confident than ever in our future potential.
Second quarter revenue was $1.5 billion, up 0.1% from last year.
As Scott mentioned, revenue in four of our segments grew on a year-over-year basis, offsetting the continued pandemic-related softness we've experienced in the Aviation segment.
Key revenue growth drivers in the quarter included higher disinfection related work orders and continued strong demand for our EnhancedClean services.
On a GAAP basis, income from continuing operations was $31.1 million or $0.46 per diluted share.
By comparison, in last year's second quarter, we reported GAAP income from continuing operations of negative $136.8 million or negative $2.05 per diluted share.
As Scott mentioned, GAAP income from continuing operations in this year's second quarter includes a non-cash $30 million reserve for an ongoing litigation equivalent to $0.32 per diluted share.
This non-cash reserve relates to litigation dating back 15 years, primarily relating to a legacy timekeeping system that was phased out in full by 2013.
You will find additional information in our Form 10-Q, which will be filed later today.
The recorded reserve is based on a host of factors, considerations and judgments and the ultimate resolution of this matter could be significantly different.
As this litigation remains ongoing, we are unable to disclose further information at this time.
As a reminder, last year's GAAP loss included a $2.55 per share impairment charge.
Excluding these charges, our adjusted income from continuing operations in the second quarter of fiscal 2021 was $55.5 million, or $0.82 per diluted share compared to $40.4 million or $0.60 per diluted share in the second quarter of last year.
The increase in adjusted income from continuing operations was attributable to our strong operational performance, including growth in our higher margin services as well as efficient labor management and the recapture of bad debt.
In addition, we benefited from favorable business mix, particularly in our Technical Solutions segment where we executed on higher-margin projects.
Excluding items impacting comparability, corporate expense for the second quarter increased by $26.6 million year-over-year.
Approximately $10 million of the variation was due to increased stock-based compensation, with the remaining $16 million representing investments and other-related expenses.
Thus, information technology and other strategic investments spend in the first half of fiscal 2021 was $20 million, in line with our expectations.
Now, turning to our segment results.
Business & Industry revenue grew 1.4% year-over-year to $796.2 million, driven largely by strength in demand for higher-margin disinfection related work orders and EnhancedClean services.
As a result, operating profit in this segment increased 44.1% to $85.3 million.
Our Technology & Manufacturing segment continue to see upside from demand for COVID-19 related services.
Revenue here increased 5.4% year-over-year to $246.3 million, and operating profit margin improved to 10.9%, up from 8.4% last year.
We benefit from the recapture of roughly $2 million of bad debt in this year's second quarter.
But even adjusting for this, our profit margin still showed improvement.
The growth in revenue and margin was fueled by a higher level of work orders and new customer contract wins for our services.
Education revenue grew 7% year-over-year to $214.2 million, representing the strongest growth rate among our segments in the second quarter.
The acceleration in revenue growth primarily reflected the positive impact from the reopening of schools and other educational facilities in the second quarter and the shift toward more in-person learning.
Education operating profit totaled $13.6 million, representing a margin of 6.3%, slightly down year-over-year on an operating [Phonetic] basis as a result of labor challenges in our Southern U.S. operations.
Bad debt expense was roughly $1 million lower than last year, and this was a contributing factor to the operating profit improvement we experienced in this segment.
Although the specific labor costs I mentioned will not recur in the third quarter, we anticipate that the return of students to school on a full-time basis will lead to some reduction in labor efficiency within this segment in the second half.
Aviation revenue declined 19.7% in the second quarter to $148.3 million.
Although reduced global travel continues to weigh on this segment, revenue improved 3.6% on a sequential basis, marking the third consecutive quarter that Aviation segment revenue has improved sequentially.
With industry data points indicating a progressive recovery in global travel, we are optimistic that revenue in our Aviation segment will continue to improve over the second half of fiscal 2021.
Aviation operating profit was $5.8 million, representing a margin of 3.9%.
While our airline customers continue to request higher margin enhanced cleaning services such as electrostatic spraying, margin remain below normalized levels given reduced volumes.
As Scott mentioned, we are focused on securing more profitable overall business with airports and related facilities and have continued to de-emphasize our airline services work.
This strategic shift in our Aviation segment business mix had a positive revenue and margin impact on our second quarter results and should benefit future periods as well.
Technical Solutions revenue increased 2.6% year-over-year to $125.5 million.
Operating margin was 8.2% in the second quarter, up significantly from 5.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 due to a favorable mix of higher-margin projects.
As client site access improves, we remain positive on the growth trajectory of the Technical Solutions segment.
Shifting now to our cash and liquidity.
We ended the second quarter with $435.7 million in cash and cash equivalents compared to $394.2 million at the end of fiscal 2020.
With total debt of $797.9 million as of April 30th, 2021, our total debt to pro forma adjusted EBITDA, including standby letters of credit, was 1.7 times for the second quarter of fiscal 2021.
Second quarter operating cash flow from continuing operations was $125.9 million, down from $162.3 million in the same period last year.
The decline in cash flow from continuing operations during the second quarter was primarily due to the timing of cash taxes.
For the six month period ending April 30th, 2021, operating cash flow from continuing operations totaled $171.2 million.
Free cash flow from continuing operations was $117 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2021 and $156 million for this year's first half.
As a reminder, cash flow is benefiting from payroll tax deferral related to the CARES Act.
Beginning next year, the deferral will be paid at $66 million in each of the next two years.
We were pleased to pay our 220th consecutive quarterly dividend of $0.19 per common share during the second quarter, returning an additional $12.7 million to our shareholders.
Our Board also declared our 221st consecutive quarterly dividend, which will be payable in August to shareholders of record on July 1st.
Supported by the strength of our balance sheet, we have the financial resources to support our capital allocation priority of adding additional growth by investing organically while pursuing potential acquisitions.
Now, I'll provide some additional color on our guidance and outlook.
As mentioned, our increased guidance for full year fiscal 2021 adjusted income from continuing operations is now a range of $3.30 to $3.50 per diluted share compared to $3.00 to $3.25 previously.
Our upward revised adjusted earnings forecast reflects the strength of our first half as well as our positive view for the second half.
As a reminder, our third quarter has one fewer day than last year, equivalent to about $6 million and reduced labor expense.
On a GAAP basis, we continue to expect earnings per share from continuing operations of $2.85 to $3.10, inclusive of the $0.32 litigation reserve in the second quarter.
We continue to expect a 30% tax rate for fiscal 2021, excluding discrete items such as the Work Opportunity Tax Credits and the tax impact of stock-based compensation awards.
As we noted in our first quarter conference call in March, our expectation was to achieve cash flow above our historical range of $175 million to $200 million for fiscal 2021.
Now having generated $171 million of operating cash flow in the first half alone, we are confident that we will achieve free cash flow for fiscal 2021 of $215 million to $240 million.
We are pleased with our positioning, as business across the country emerge from the pandemic and we look forward to helping our clients provide safe environment for their employees and customers.
And I am personally looking forward to meeting with each of you in person, hopefully as soon as later this year and to connecting with you virtually until then.

user
q2 adjusted earnings per share $0.82 from continuing operations.
q2 gaap earnings per share $0.46 from continuing operations.
raises fy adjusted earnings per share view to $3.30 to $3.50 from continuing operations.
q2 revenue $1.5 billion versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $1.48 billion.
co is maintaining its guidance for fy fiscal 2021 gaap income from continuing operations.

assistant