The CMS team is executing well and has great momentum as they prepare to be an independent company. PA Consulting continues to take share as demonstrated by an 8.5% revenue growth in what continues to be a choppy macro environment, particularly in the U.K. Margins were light due to some softness in December. However, we continue to expect approximately 20% adjusted operating margins for the full year and have confidence in our ability to manage variable costs to achieve that goal. Together with PA, we celebrated new wins with the office of gas and electricity markets in the U.K. for program management services and regulatory practices that will advance the safe and secure supply of hydrogen. Our Divergent Solutions operating unit delivered a solid quarter with 5% adjusted net revenue growth.
Profits were impacted by an approximately $15 million onetime in connection with the merger. Underlying performance in the business was strong and excluded this write-down. Adjusted operating margins would have been approximately 700 basis points higher and exceeded our expectations for the quarter. In summary, we remain well positioned to grow while serving our clients with excellence and delivering science-based digitally-enabled solutions for a more connected and sustainable world. And we continue generating strong free cash flow conversion, which will enable us to return capital to shareholders as we chart our new path forward as 2 independent companies. Now I’ll turn the call over to Claudia to review our financial results in further detail.
Claudia Jaramillo: Thank you, Bob. We are pleased with our Q1 results, which came in above our expectations. Our results illustrate our ability to deliver on our long-standing financial objectives, while at the same time, generating strong free cash flow and returning a significant portion of our cash to shareholders. So let me begin by summarizing a few of the highlights for the quarter on Slide 7. First quarter gross revenue grew 9.5% year-over-year and adjusted net revenue grew 7%. GAAP operating profit was $204 million for the quarter and included $51 million of amortization for acquired intangibles and $60 million of other transaction, separation related restructuring and other costs. This includes $51 million associated with the separation of CMS.
Our adjusted operating margin was 9.8%. I’ll discuss the underlying dynamics during the reported segment review. GAAP EPS from continuing operations was $1.37 per share. And included a $0.27 impact related to the amortization charge of acquired intangibles and $0.37 from transaction, restructuring and other related costs. Excluding these items, first quarter adjusted EPS was $2.02, up 28% year-over-year. Our adjusted EPS included a $0.49 benefit related to a discrete tax item and a $0.09 headwind related to the noncash inventory write-down. Q1 adjusted EBITDA was $328 million and was down 3.1% year-over-year, representing 10% of our adjusted net working capital. Excluding the inventory write-down, adjusted EBITDA would be roughly flat year-over-year.
The effective tax rate of 4.2% benefited from $61.6 million in discrete tax benefits related to the permanent reinvestment of capital gains associated with an overseas subsidiary. This tax benefit was incorporated in our annual guidance and we continue to forecast the 22% annual effective tax rate to fiscal year 2024. We will no longer be adjusting our non-GAAP EPS to align with our full year effective tax rate expectations. With the entirety of the deferred tax benefit in Q1, we now expect quarterly effective tax rate to approximate 26% to 27% for each quarter of the remainder of the fiscal year. Finally, backlog was up 5% year-over-year. The revenue book-to-bill ratio was just over 1.12x, with our gross profit in backlog increasing 6.1% year-over-year.
Regarding the performance of our [indiscernible] in the quarter, let’s turn to Slide 8. Starting with People & Places Solutions. Q1 adjusted net revenue was up 8.4% year-over-year. Adjusted operating profit was down slightly, resulting in adjusted operating margins of 13.7%. However, excluding the impact of cost allocation changes previously mentioned, adjusted operating profit would have resulted in approximately 7% year-over-year growth. We continue to see solid momentum in both growth and profitability in the business and anticipate full year P&PS adjusted operating margins to increase year-over-year, inclusive of the previously mentioned increase in allocation of overhead costs. Moving to Critical Mission Solutions. Our Q1 revenue increased 5% year-over-year with backlog up 9%, continuing a consistent trend of high-single-digit growth over multiple quarters.
We also continue to find avenues through operational improvement with CMS operating margins rising by 63 basis points year-over-year. Shifting to Divergent Solutions. In Q1, our adjusted net revenue increased by 4.7% year-over-year. Underlying execution was strong. Adjusted operating profit was $8 million, including the $15 million inventory write-down. Excluding the one-off write-down, performance was above expectations. Now let’s turn our attention to PA Consulting. Q1 saw an 8.5% year-over-year revenue increase. PA continues to deliver ongoing positive momentum in bookings and pipeline. However, the U.K.’s ongoing election cycle introduces macro risks that we are closely monitoring. We remain confident in our ability to navigate these factors by managing variable costs and are targeting approximately 20% adjusted operating margins for the full year.
In total, it was a strong quarter for each of our segments from an execution standpoint. Our adjusted unallocated corporate costs were $59 million in Q1. This quarter’s cost excluded previously mentioned costs that are now being allocated to the P&PS segment. As we continue to enhance operational efficiencies and optimize our operating model, we expect this line item to trend towards $50 million per quarter or $200 million annually post debt pressure. Turning to Slide 9 to discuss our balance sheet and cash flow. We posted another quarter of strong cash flow generation, which is indicative of the quality of our earnings and cash conversion. As Bob mentioned, we generated strong quarterly free cash flow of $401 million. As a result, we are well positioned to deliver our anticipated 100% reported and adjusted free cash flow conversion to adjusted net earnings.
