Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us. Our conference call materials were issued this morning and are available on PHINIA's investor relations website, including a slide deck that we'll be referencing in our remarks. We're also broadcasting this call via webcast. Joining us today are Brady Ericson, CEO, and Chris Gropp, CFO.
During this call, we'll make forward-looking statements which are based on management's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of factors, including those described in our SEC filings. We caution on listeners not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Brady.
Thank you, Kellen, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. I will start with some highlights on the first quarter and discuss our strategy at a high level. Chris will provide additional details on our first quarter results and discuss our 2026 financial outlook. We will open the call for questions. The first quarter developed largely as we expected with highlights, including solid revenue growth from both Fuel Systems and Aftermarket, keeping us on track to achieve our full-year guidance. At the same time, we maintained a healthy balance sheet while paying dividends and repurchasing shares.
While the environment continues to evolve rapidly, our teams are managing our business well and deliver results that strengthen our foundation for the long term. Our diversification across regions, customers, end markets, and products help offset variability in any single region or segment. Now let's jump into the first quarter results on slide five. In the first quarter, PHINIA continued to demonstrate resilience in a mixed macro environment.
Demand conditions across key end markets remained steady, supported by durable replacement cycle fundamentals and some encouraging green shoots in the commercial vehicle industry. At the same time, we navigated ongoing geopolitical and trade-related uncertainty, including tariff volatility, shipping disruptions, and regional production variability. We face these challenges with strong operational execution and disciplined cost management. For the 4th consecutive quarter, we delivered year-over-year growth in both the Aftermarket and Fuel Systems segments.
Total net sales in the quarter were $878 million, up 10.3% from the same period of the prior year. Excluding FX impacts and the contribution of SEM, revenue was up 3.6%. We reported Adjusted EBITDA of $115 million for the quarter, up $12 million and a margin of 13.1%. Total segment adjusted operating income was $107 million, with a 12.2% margin. The Fuel Systems segment delivered a strong quarter with sales of $549 million, up 12% and adjusted operating margin of 9.3%. The Aftermarket segment had sales of $329 million, up 7.5% with adjusted operating margin of 17%.
Adjusted earnings per diluted share, excluding non-operating items, was $1.29 for the quarter, compared to $0.94 in the same period of the prior year, a 37% increase year-over-year. Closing out with a comment about our balance sheet. PHINIA continues to demonstrate financial stability and consistency. We ended the quarter with a cash position of $328 million and total liquidity of $808 million. Our net leverage ratio was 1.4x, nearing our target of 1.5x. We returned $67 million to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends.
Our balance sheet provides financial flexibility to support future growth initiatives and return to shareholders. During the quarter, we also hosted a successful Investor Day in New York, two days after a historic blizzard, which in hindsight, may have been the universe's way of testing whether investors were truly committed. They showed up. So did we. We were able to showcase the diversity of our products, our business model, and our long-term growth outlook. We had more than 200 live viewers watching from 30 countries.
All in all, it was a great experience for us and want to thank everyone who helped make such a wonderful inaugural Investor Day. In summary, while the external environment continues to evolve, we remain focused on the things that we can control. The first quarter performance underscored the durability and resilience of our business amid a rapidly changing global environment by serving a broad mix of regions, customers, end markets, and products. Moving to slide six. We had a good quarter when it comes to new business, which reflects continued progress across multiple fronts.
Importantly, we are continuing to grow with our existing customers while also bringing in new ones, and we're starting to see real traction in some newer areas for us. Aerospace and defense is an area where we are incrementally winning business and building a presence with customers. Recent wins highlight the strength of our offering and our ability to compete and win in adjacent markets with the same manufacturing human capital, as well as an important long-term growth opportunity. During the quarter, we were awarded a new program with a new customer for use in unmanned aerial drone.
The program leverages our GDI injector technology to power the drone engine. It highlights our growing capabilities in advanced propulsion solutions for these aerospace and defense market. It is encouraging to see our capabilities translate into success in this new market as we continue to expect to see additional announcements in the future. This quarter included notable wins across Fuel Systems and Aftermarket channels, reinforcing customer trust, technology differentiation, and PHINIA's ability to deliver premium solutions to our customers.
In addition to the aerospace and defense win I just highlighted, notable Fuel Systems wins in the quarter include Compressed Natural Gas Fuel Rail Assembly with a leading global OEM, marking our third consecutive quarter of a major alternative fuel program win in India. Direct Injection Fuel Rail Assembly with a major Chinese OEM, supporting a luxury SUV platform equipped with a dual-fuel-injection V8 engine. Now to slide seven. Our Aftermarket business continues to be a steady and reliable contributor to our solid results.
We're seeing consistent demand driven by an aging fleet and a growing vehicle park. As vehicles stay on the road longer, we are well-positioned to support our customers around the world with the quality parts and service they depend on every day. Our strong and recognizable brands, broad and consistently expanding product offerings, and focus on customer service are helping us build deeper relationships and win new opportunities. Recent wins were across diverse geographies, further strengthening our position in the independent Aftermarket.
A few notable wins during the quarter include expanding our product portfolio with a major warehouse distributor in the Americas by adding steering and suspension and vehicle electronics. Adding two new customers in Europe and growing our propulsion agnostic program within the Asia-Pacific region. Renewing a starter program with a global commercial vehicle on- and off-highway OEM, reinforcing our long-standing presence to supply starters for severe-duty and long-haul applications.
Thanks, Brady. Thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. As a reminder, reconciliations of all non-GAAP financial measures that I will discuss can be found in today's press release and in the presentation, both of which are on our website. In the first quarter, we delivered results in line with our expectations and reflect both the strength of our diversified portfolio and the benefits of our operational discipline. Diving into the details, which you can find in slides 10 and 11 of the presentation, I will bridge our revenue and Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter.
Specifically, during the quarter we generated $878 million in net sales, an increase of 10.3% versus a year ago. Compared to Q1 2025, our top line rose 4.9% on favorable foreign exchange of $39 million as the euro, Chinese renminbi, British pound, and Brazilian real strengthened against the US dollar. We saw a positive contribution from volume and mix of $17 million, or 2.1%, as higher sales in the Americas and Asia offset flat sales in Europe. Revenue in the quarter also benefited from tariff recovery of $12 million, while SEM contributed sales of $14 million in the quarter.
Excluding the FX impact and the SEM contribution, sales were up 3.6% in the quarter. Moving next to the bridge on slide 11. Adjusted EBITDA was $115 million in the quarter, with a margin of 13.1%, representing a year-over-year increase of $12 million and a 20 basis point increase in margin. Supplier savings and cost control measures were a $6 million tailwind. Net tariff pass-throughs were $3 million. Volume mix, SEM, and all other changes were an additional $3 million year-over-year. The operational performance of our segments and functions was solid and in line with our high expectations.
We continue to effectively execute our disciplined capital allocation strategy, successfully balancing significant cash return to shareholders with the potential for strategic accretive M&A. Cash and cash equivalents at quarter end were $328 million, while available capacity under our credit facilities remained at approximately $500,000,000 for a resulting liquidity of $818 million. Our strong cash generation enabled us to continue returns of capital to our shareholders through cash dividends and buybacks.
In January, our board approved increases to both our quarterly dividend and share repurchase program, reaffirming their confidence in our disciplined approach to capital allocation. Cash flow from operations was $53 million, an increase of $13 million over the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted Free Cash Flow was $22 million, our best first quarter since becoming a standalone company, with capital expenditures of 3.6% coming in below our target of 4% and efficient uses of working capital in the quarter.
Share repurchases and dividends represented our primary use of capital, with value back to our shareholders of $56 million and $11 million respectively in the quarter. We remain confident in our ability to generate strong free cash flow to support our future capital allocation priorities. Our broadening portfolio of products, solutions, and services, coupled with our healthy balance sheet, will enable us to continue to deploy capital with discipline focused on delivering long-term, sustainable, profitable growth, creating value for our shareholders.
Now moving next to slide 12 to comment on our 2026 outlook. We had a solid start to the year and reiterate the full-year guidance we issued earlier this year. Specifically, at the midpoint of our revenue outlook range of $3.5 billion-$3.7 billion, we would expect an increase in net sales in the mid-single-digit range, inclusive of FX. Excluding expected FX, our growth is projected to be in the low-single-digit area. We are guiding Adjusted EBITDA to be $485 million-$525 million, with an EBITDA margin of 13.7%-14.3%.
We believe the business is well-positioned to continue generating meaningful free cash flow, and our 2026 outlook for Adjusted Free Cash Flow is $200 million-$240 million. We expect the adjusted tax rate to be in the 30%-34% range. Overall, we expect to continue to deliver strong results in 2026 as we drive operational efficiency and search for new areas of growth for both segments. As a reminder, our outlook does not account for potential impacts from recent or future government policy changes that could influence our operations or technical centers.
This includes measures such as additional tariffs, tax reforms, or any other policies that might either increase or decrease our revenue assumptions and/or alter our cost structure. It should be noted, however, we do not see a material change in our tariff position based upon the recently issued Section 232 tariff clarifications. We are also not currently experiencing any material supply chain or revenue disruptions related to the conflict in the Middle East.
As we look forward to the rest of the year, we are taking disciplined actions to manage controllable factors, including optimizing costs, aligning supply with and where current demand exists while preserving financial flexibility. PHINIA is well positioned to navigate global market conditions and changes, we are confident in our operations and our ability to generate sufficient cash for our needs while also continuing to invest in the future. We want to thank all of you for joining us today on the call. We're ready to open the call. Operator, please open the lines for questions.