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'm joined today by Ron Tsoumas, our Chief Financial Officer.
Let's begin with the business highlights on Slide 4.
Our sales for the quarter were $288 million.
Excluding favorable currency translation, our organic growth was up 45% from the prior year.
However, it should be noted that our prior year first quarter was significantly impacted by the pandemic.
In this year's first quarter, our team faced customer demand fluctuations and supply chain challenges.
These included the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage, pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and port congestion, all of which created both sales and margin pressure.
Once again, our team worked diligently to mitigate many of these challenges and we were able to deliver results within our guidance ranges for the quarter.
However, these demand fluctuations and supply chain disruptions continued to require remedial actions, such as expedited shipping and premium component pricing.
As of today, our expectation is that these conditions will last at least until the end of the calendar year.
While we have reaffirmed our guidance for the full year, persistent headwinds could cause our performance to be below the midpoint of the ranges as the situation is very fluid and will remain very challenging.
The sales growth that we realized in the first quarter was due to increased demand across most of our businesses, but was especially focused on the auto and commercial vehicle markets.
We also realized growth in our Dabir business.
However, that business is still being hampered by the pandemic, thus limiting our production or product evaluation opportunities in hospital operating rooms and ICUs.
On an order basis, we had solid awards for EV, cloud computing and e-bike applications.
Focusing on EV, last quarter, we reported that sales into EV applications were 13% of consolidated sales.
This quarter, EV sales were 16% of consolidated sales and we continue to expect that number to be in the mid-teens for fiscal 2022.
Methode's combination of user interface, LED lighting and power distribution solutions is a winning formula in EV.
In the quarter, we further reduced debt, generated positive operating cash flow and continued to return capital to our shareholders.
We have ample liquidity, which also allows us to execute our stock buyback program, under which we purchased $7.6 million of shares in the quarter, and to pay our dividend, which rose from $0.11 to $0.14 per share in the quarter.
We continued to allocate capital per our balanced approach.
Moving to Slide 5.
Methode had another solid quarter of business awards.
These awards continue to capitalize in key market trends like vehicle electrification and cloud computing.
The awards identified here represent some of the key businesses -- business wins in the quarter and represent over $30 million in annual business at full production.
In vehicle electrification, we won awards for power distribution and LED lighting programs.
We continue to win programs with OEMs globally in both auto and commercial vehicle applications.
In non-EV automotive, we were awarded programs for power, lighting and traditional switch applications.
In cloud computing, we saw demand for our power distribution and transceiver products and data center applications.
Lastly, we continue to participate in the growth of e-bikes, which utilizes our proprietary magneto elastic sensor technology.
Building on the prior year, our business awards are delivering on our strategic priority to drive both customer and geographic diversity.
Turning to Slide 6.
As I've mentioned in recent quarters, our business awards over the last couple of years have put us on track in aggregate to replace the sales from the roll off of our largest auto program.
As such our customer and program diversity continues to improve.
Our EV, as well as our commercial vehicle and cloud computing businesses have helped drive our customer diversification.
While GM and Ford have been and are expected to continue to be good customers that have fueled Methode's historical growth, in recent years, we have strategically and systematically broaden our customer base.
Our business outside of GM and Ford grew to two-thirds of our fiscal 2021 total sales.
To conclude, despite the ongoing demand fluctuations and supply chain challenges, we are still in a position to deliver strong organic growth for fiscal 2022.
First quarter sales were $287.8 million in fiscal year '22 compared to $190.9 million in fiscal year '21, an increase of $96.9 million or 50.8%.
The year-over-year quarterly comparisons include a favorable foreign currency impact on sales of $10.3 million in the current quarter.
The increase was mainly due to lower sales in the prior year quarter from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to higher sales of electric and hybrid electric vehicles, which amounted to 16% of sales in the first quarter of fiscal year '22, which was in line with our previous communication that electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicle sales would comprise mid teens of our fiscal year '22 consolidated sales.
In addition, stronger commercial vehicle sales contributed to the robust sales growth.
First quarter net income increased $8.4 million to $29.1 million or $0.76 per share diluted from $20.7 million or $0.54 per diluted share in the same period last year.
Net income benefited from increased sales and favorable currency translation, partially offset by higher income tax expense, higher costs from supply chain disruption, higher selling and administrative expenses and lower other income.
First quarter gross margins were higher in fiscal year '22 as compared to fiscal year '21, mainly due to increased sales, partially offset by higher material costs, higher logistic costs, including freight and supply chain shortages.
Fiscal year '22 first quarter margins were 24.9% as compared to 23.6% in the first quarter of fiscal year '21.
The negative impact of the supply disruption and higher logistics costs, including freight, on the first quarter of fiscal year '22 gross margin was nearly 300 basis points.
These higher costs that were experienced in the first quarter are expected to continue further in fiscal year '22.
In addition, we anticipate a degree of cost inflation in the remainder of the current fiscal year.
First quarter selling and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales decreased to 11.4% compared to 13.9% in the fiscal '21 first quarter.
The fiscal year '22 first quarter percentage decrease was attributable to increased sales related to the negative impact of COVID-19 pandemic on fiscal '21 sales, partially offset by higher stock-based and performance-based compensation expenses.
The first quarter of fiscal year '22 selling and administrative expenses percentage was in line with our historical norm, which should yield an efficient flow-through from gross margin to operating income.
In addition to the gross margin and selling and administrative items mentioned above, two other non-operational items significantly impacted net income in the first quarter of fiscal year '22 as compared to the comparable quarter last fiscal year.
First, income tax expense in the first quarter of fiscal year '22 was $5.7 million or 16.4% as compared to a net tax benefit of $5.1 million in the first quarter of fiscal year '21.
The effective tax rate was lower in the first quarter of fiscal year '21 due to discrete tax benefits of $7.8 million in the quarter or $0.20 per diluted share.
Without the discrete tax benefits, the effective rate would have been 17.2%.
The year-over-year tax expense increase was $10.8 million.
Second, other income net was lower by $1.6 million, mainly due to lower international government assistance between the comparable quarters.
Shifting to EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure.
Fiscal year '22 first quarter EBITDA was $48.5 million versus $29.3 million in the same period last fiscal year.
EBITDA was positively impacted by higher operating income, partially offset by lower other income.
Free cash flow, a non-GAAP financial measure, is defined as net cash provided from operating activities minus capex.
For fiscal year '22 first quarter free cash flow was a negative $6.2 million as compared to a positive $4.8 million in the first quarter of fiscal year '21.
The decrease was mainly due to negative working capital changes, especially inventory, resulting from difficult logistics and higher capital expenditures.
While we experienced negative free cash flow in the first quarter of fiscal year '22, we expect improvement the remainder of the fiscal year.
We anticipate continuing our proven history of consistently generating reliable cash flows, which allow for ample funding of future organic growth, inorganic growth and return of capital to shareholders.
In the first quarter of fiscal year '22, we invested approximately $15.9 million in capex as compared to $11.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal year '21.
The higher first quarter capex is in line with our expectation that capex in fiscal year '22 would be higher than the investment in the prior year estimated to be in the range of $53 million to $57 million.
We have a strong balance sheet and we'll continue utilizing it by continuing investment in our businesses to grow them organically in the future.
In addition, we continue to actively pursue opportunities for inorganic growth and have a measured return of capital to the shareholders.
In the first quarter of fiscal year '22, we reduced gross debt by $4.7 million.
Since our acquisition of Grakon in September 2018, we reduced gross debt by nearly $123 million.
Regarding capital allocation, we recently announced two initiatives.
First, on March 31st, we announced the $100 million share repurchase program, which we executed $7.6 million of repurchases during the first quarter of fiscal year '22.
Since the authorization's approval, we have purchased $15.1 million worth of shares at an average price of $46.45.
In addition, we increased our quarterly dividend from $0.11 to $0.14 per quarterly share, an increase of 27%.
We ended the first quarter with $207.9 million in cash.
As Don mentioned in his remarks, we reaffirmed our previously issued guidance and earnings per share annual guidance.
External events and their related potential impact on our financial results remain an ongoing challenge.
While we have reaffirmed our guidance for the full year, persistent headwinds could cause our performance to be below the midpoint of the ranges as the situation is fluid and will likely remain very challenging.
The revenue range for the full fiscal year '22 is between $1.175 billion to $1.235 billion.
Diluted earnings per share range is between $3.35 to $3.75 per share.
The range is due to the uncertainty from the supply chain disruption for semiconductors and other materials on both Methode and its customers.
From a sales perspective, lower sales could result from the supply disruption to us and/or our customers, which could result in lesser demand for our products or our ability to meet customer demand.
Continued supply chain disruption would also negatively impact gross margins due to additional costs incurred from premium freight, factory inefficiencies and, to a lesser extent, tariffs and other logistic factors, including port congestion.
Higher costs for materials, freight and labor are a constant and dynamic battle, and we are uncertain as to when things will stabilize.
Don, that concludes my comments.
Ken, I believe we're ready to take questions.

user
q1 earnings per share $0.76.
reaffirms fy earnings per share view $3.35 to $3.75.
sees fy sales $1.175 billion to $1.235 billion.
q1 sales $287.8 million.

assistant