Regarding the fourth quarter of fiscal ’23, total reported revenue increased 6% while core revenue expanded 9% over prior year. We continued to improve profitability with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.9% in the fourth quarter of fiscal ’23, up from 20.1% in the year ago period. While we expect to continue to enhance profitability towards our goal of 25% as we exit fiscal ’24, keep in mind that there is some seasonality as higher volume in the back half of the fiscal year typically translates to higher margins. As we have discussed, our strong liquidity and balance sheet support our capital allocation priorities, including, internal investments to drive our organic growth, also to execute on our ASCEND transformation program, along with opportunistic share repurchases and the capacity to pursue strategic acquisitions.
At year-end fiscal ’23, our leverage was 0.6x adjusted EBITDA, remaining well below our target range of 1.5x to 2.5x and providing ample liquidity to pursue meaningful capital deployment. During fiscal ’23, we repurchased 2.2 million shares, returning $58 million to shareholders. There are 4 million shares remaining under the current authorization. As noted in our press release in July, we completed the sale of the Cortland Industrial business, further sharpening Enerpac’s pure-play focus. For modeling purposes, Cortland Industrial contributed approximately $23 million to revenue in fiscal ’23 with minimal impact on EBITDA. Looking ahead, our guidance for fiscal 2024 reflects a fair degree of caution given the continued uncertainty in the macro environment.
Entering the first quarter of fiscal ’24, orders declined in September but rebounded thus far in October, leaving us about flat year-over-year through the first half of the quarter. With that in mind, we anticipate net sales of $590 million to $605 million with underlying core growth of approximately 2% to 4%. For the year, we expect growth in both product and service revenues. As a note, when we talk about core growth in fiscal ’24, we’ve deducted revenues from the divested Cortland Industrial business from the baseline for a true apples-to-apples comparison. Longer term, we continue to target the goals we laid out at our Investor Day in November 2022, with a 6% to 7% organic revenue CAGR over the planning horizon through fiscal 2026. We are forecasting adjusted EBITDA of $142 million to $152 million.
And at the midpoint, that represents a year-over-year growth of 8%, with a full year adjusted EBITDA margin of 24.6%. We expect to generate relatively flat free cash flow of $60 million to $70 million in fiscal ’24. CapEx is expected to be higher with investments in the range of $12 million to $17 million compared to $9.4 million in fiscal 2023, as we invest in manufacturing equipment upgrades and automation to support our continued growth and efficiency enhancements. In addition, cash taxes are expected to increase to normal levels, partially offset by lower ASCEND-related costs. Excluding onetime charges associated with the ASCEND program and discontinued operations, fiscal ’24 free cash flow conversion would be approximately 100%. As you can see from this slide, we have included our modeling assumptions including interest expense, depreciation and amortization, along with adjusted tax rate.
As Paul said, we effectively achieved the vast majority of our targeted benefit from ASCEND in fiscal 2023. Going forward, as we transition to a continuous improvement program, which leverages all the rigor and processes from ASCEND, we will no longer break out ASCEND’s specific benefits. As per the expense out of ASCEND, since the inception of the program, we have booked expenses totaling approximately $60 million. That leaves us with $10 million to $15 million remaining in anticipated spend in fiscal 2024, which includes $3 million to $5 million of restructuring charges. With that, let me turn the call back to Paul.
