We delivered year-over-year growth in revenue, profitability, and free cash flow while returning value to shareholders through highly accretive share repurchases. Our organic growth improved throughout the quarter and is up sequentially compared to the fourth quarter. We remain confident that we will exit the year growing at our mid-single-digit organic growth target rate and be in a position to return to our long-term growth algorithm. In the fourth quarter of 2025, organic revenue growth was flat as we completed a year of significant transformation and integration.
Combined with a more favorable market backdrop, organic revenue growth improved as we progressed through the first quarter. We estimate that these temporary factors reduced reported organic revenue growth by approximately 200 basis points in the first quarter. Within financial services, our lateral hiring initiative is identifying and advancing high impact, high producing MDs with several new hires recently completed and a robust pipeline of senior candidates who are drawn to CBIZ. This structure was designed to lead with insights, anticipate client needs, and deliver coordinated, tailored solutions that drive stronger retention, accelerated growth, and reinforce our value-based pricing.
As we continue to strengthen our industry practices, we are seeing increased new client pipeline activity across several key verticals, including consumer and industrial products, capital markets, alternative investments, and construction. With our highly recurring revenue base and strong client retention, our most immediate growth opportunity is expanding relationships with existing clients. We are systematically increasing the number of clients using multiple services, and we expect these efforts to contribute to organic growth over time. Taken together, we believe strong execution against these four priorities positions us to drive attractive levels of growth in 2026 and beyond.