Economic uncertainty has led customers to be cautious and measured in their approach to technology spending, resulting in a reduction or delay in their spend. Customers continue to balance priorities to focus on solutions that lead to business optimization, cost management and security risk management and in many cases are reassessing the timing of IT refresh cycles and pausing or deferring their IT spend.

CDW has orchestrated solutions by leveraging security, software and hybrid and cloud offerings to help customers achieve their objectives. Current technology trends are focused on delivering greater flexibility and efficiency, as well as designing and managing IT securely.

Selling and administrative expenses increased slightly by $1 million, or 0.2%, to $735.3 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024, compared to $734.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2023.

The effective tax rate, expressed by calculating the income tax expense as a percentage of Income before income taxes, was 21.9% for the three months ended March 31, 2024, compared to 22.3% for the three months ended March 31, 2023.

General economic conditions are a key factor affecting our results as they can impact our customers' willingness and ability to spend on information technology. Macroeconomic uncertainty persists as a result of the current inflationary environment and corresponding heightened levels of interest rates driven by monetary policy.

Changes in spending policies, budget priorities, timing and funding levels, including current and future stimulus packages, are key factors influencing the purchasing levels of government, healthcare and education customers.

During the three months ended March 31, 2024, we repurchased 0.2 million shares of our common stock for $52 million under the previously announced share repurchase program.

On May 1, 2024, we announced that our Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on our common stock of $0.620 per share.

Current technology trends are focused on delivering greater flexibility and efficiency, as well as designing and managing IT securely. These trends are driving customer adoption of solutions such as cloud, generative artificial intelligence, software defined architectures and hybrid on-premise and off-premise combinations.

The cash conversion cycle decreased to 16 days at March 31, 2024, compared to 18 days at March 31, 2023. The overall decrease was primarily driven by a reduction in DIO resulting from lower stocking positions.