Total company adjusted gross margin on revenues before reimbursements, which excludes reimbursable expenses and noncash stock-based compensation expense was 43.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023 as compared to 45.1% in the prior year period. This decrease is primarily due to increased head count and lower utilization in the fourth quarter. Adjusted SG&A, which excludes noncash stock-based compensation expense and our Gartner legal settlement and related costs, was $15.4 million or 21.6% of revenues before reimbursements in the fourth quarter of ’23. This is compared to $14.9 million or 21.7% of revenues before reimbursements in the prior year. The year-over-year absolute dollar increase is primarily due to incremental investments we are making and dedicated sales resources for executive advisory service offerings.
These investments approximated $0.01 in the fourth quarter of 2023. Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes noncash stock-based compensation expense and the one-time legal settlement previously mentioned and related costs, was $16.3 million or 23% of revenues before reimbursements in the fourth quarter of ’23 as compared to $16.9 million or 24.5% of revenues before reimbursements in the prior year. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter of ’23 totaled $7.9 million with diluted earnings per share of $0.28 in compares to GAAP net income of $9.7 million or diluted earnings per share of $0.31 in the fourth quarter of the previous year. GAAP net income includes a one-time legal settlement and related costs of $1.2 million or $0.03 per diluted earnings per share.
Adjusted net income, which excludes noncash stock-based compensation expense and the legal settlement for the fourth quarter of 2023, totaled $10.8 million or adjusted diluted net income per common share of $0.39, which was above the high-end of our earnings guidance range. This compares to adjusted net income of $11.5 million or adjusted diluted net income per common share of $0.36 in the fourth quarter of the prior year. The company’s cash balances were $21 million at the end of the fourth quarter of ’23 as compared to $9.9 million at the end of the previous quarter. Net cash provided by operating activities in the quarter was $25.6 million, primarily driven by net income adjusted for noncash activity and decreases in accounts receivable and related days sales outstanding.
Our DSO at the end of the quarter was 65 days as compared to 75 days at the end of the previous quarter and as compared to 63 days at the end of the fourth quarter of 2022. During the quarter, the company paid down $11 million on our credit facility. The balance of the company’s total debt outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter was approximately $33 million. Net interest expense for the quarter was $641,000. During the quarter, we repurchased approximately 3,000 shares of the company’s stock from employees to satisfy income tax withholding triggered by the vesting of restricted stock — of restricted shares for an average of $23.08 per share at a total cost of approximately $71,000. Our remaining stock repurchase authorization at the end of the quarter was $13.9 million.
At its most recent meeting, subsequent to the end of the quarter, the company’s Board of Directors declared the first quarterly dividend of $0.11 per share for its shareholders of record on March 22, 2024, to be paid on April 5, 2024. I’m now going to move to discussing the guidance for our first quarter of 2024. Before I do that, I’d like to remind everyone of the seasonality of our business relative to costs as we move sequentially from Q4 to Q1. Specifically, consistent with first quarter guidance provided in previous years, our first quarter guidance for 2024 will reflect the sequential increase in U.S. payroll-related taxes and the sequential buildup of our vacation accruals. The company estimates total revenue before reimbursements for the first quarter of 2024 to be in the range of $72.5 million to $74 million.
We expect all three segment revenues before reimbursements to be up when compared to the prior year with Oracle Solutions up strongly. We estimate adjusted diluted net income per common share in the first quarter of 2024 to be in the range of $0.36 to $0.39, which assumes a GAAP effective tax rate on adjusted earnings of 22%. We expect adjusted gross margin on revenues before reimbursements to be approximately 40.6% to 41.4%. We expect adjusted SG&A and interest expense to be approximately $16.8 million. We expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA on revenues before reimbursements to in the range of approximately 20% to 21%. Lastly, we expect cash balances, excluding the impact of share buyback activity, to be tempered due to the payment of 2023 performance related bonuses and the payment of the employee income taxable withholding triggered by net vesting of restricted shares.
At this point, I would like to turn it back over to Ted to review our market outlook and our strategic priorities for the coming months. Ted?
Ted Fernandez: Thank you, Rob. As we look forward, let me share our thoughts on the near and long-term demand environment and the growth opportunities it offers our organization. Although demand for digital transformation remains strong, it continues to be impacted by extended decision making as organizations assess competing priorities created by high interest rates and the demand disruption, which it is intended to affect. Digital innovation and enterprise cloud applications, analytics and artificial intelligence as well as workflow automation are dramatically influencing the way businesses compete to deliver their services. So what’s new? It’s the rapidly emerging attention and demand for Gen AI. Its possibly unlimited potential will drive an entirely new level of digital world-class performance standards, driving all software and services providers to extend the value of their existing offerings.
