The fast pace of orders growth that we saw in the first half of the year has continued with orders up 20% in the quarter, driving our backlog up 34%.
A month ago, we indicated a probable $100 million impact on full year revenue, driven by the global supply chain environment.
Having raised guidance at the end of the first and second quarters, we now anticipate that the constraints on volume will moderate our full year revenue growth to between 3% and 4%, and bring adjusted earnings per share into a range of $2.40 to $2.50, which represents roughly 20% earnings per share growth over last year.
Revenue grew 2% organically compared to the prior year.
Utilities, our largest end market, was down 5% despite continuing strong demand.
Industrial was up 11%, led by our continued growth in the emerging markets and Western Europe.
Commercial grew 10%, led by the ongoing recovery in the United States.
While residential, our smallest end market, was up 4%.
As Patrick has mentioned, the team delivered exceptional organic orders growth of 20%, which was broad-based across all segments and regions.
M&CS led the way with nearly 40% -- 42% orders growth, driven by large smart metering contract wins, the impact of longer lead times, and pent-up demand from the COVID-19-impacted prior year.
We're exiting the quarter with an overall backlog of about 34%.
Margins were above our forecasted range with EBITDA margins coming in at 17.9%, reflecting strong productivity and good cost control by the team.
Year over year, EBITDA margin contracted 30 basis points as inflation and strategic investments were largely offset by productivity, price realization, and cost containment.
Our earnings per share in the quarter was $0.63.
In Water Infrastructure, orders were up 9% on strength in wastewater transport applications in the U.S. and Western Europe.
Revenues were up 2% organically.
In Applied Water, orders were up 17% organically in the quarter on broad industrial strength and commercial recovery.
Revenue grew 8% in the quarter from continued commercial momentum and industrial growth in most regions.
and Western Europe both contributed 6% growth due to the uplift from commercial and industrial.
Emerging markets were up 13% on continued strength in China and gains in Eastern Europe.
Segment EBITDA margin contracted 60 basis points compared to the prior year as inflation and the investments to -- more than offset productivity benefits and price realization.
In M&CS, orders were up 42% organically, as I mentioned a moment ago.
Our M&CS backlog now stands at roughly $1.6 billion.
And organic revenue was down 5%, which is a tangible effect of chip shortages.
By geography, Western Europe was up 1% while emerging markets was flat.
Segment EBITDA margin in the quarter was down by 60 basis points compared to the prior year as volume declines from component shortages and higher inflation offset productivity and price realization.
We closed in the quarter with $1.3 billion in cash after paying down $600 million of debt in the third quarter.
Free cash flow conversion was 57% in the quarter, in line with our expectations, and we continue to expect full year of free cash flow conversion of 80% to 90%.
Net debt-to-EBITDA leverage was in 1.3 times at the end of the quarter.
One more thing to mention, albeit with a slightly greater time horizon, there's been a lot of discussion about cross-border supply chains.
Just here in last week, we had about 500 of our customers join us at our annual Xylem Reach User Conference.
More than 65 water utilities around the world have already done so and it's a movement that's gaining momentum, which is just one reflection of the trend toward technologies that we affordably decarbonize water systems.
On the clean water side, demand for smart water solutions and digital offerings continues to be robust.
For Xylem overall, we now see full year organic revenue growth in the range of 3% to 4%, down from the previous range of 6% to 8%.
We are now expecting EBITDA margins in the range of 17.1% to 17.4% compared to our previous guidance range of 17.2% to 17.7%.
This guidance represents full year margin expansion of just roughly 100 basis points.
Our adjusted earnings per share guidance is now $2.40 to $2.50 which, at the midpoint, reflects a 19% increase in earnings per share over last year.
Full year 2021 free cash flow conversion is in line with previous guidance at 80% to 90%, putting our three-year average right around 130%.
We have updated our euro to dollar conversion rate assumption for the fourth quarter from 1.18 to 1.16.
We anticipate total company organic revenues will be down roughly 4% to 6% in the quarter.
We expect fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA margin to be in the range of 16% to 17%.
Xylem's total shareholder returns have been nearly double the S&P 500 over the decade.

Summary:
Having raised guidance at the end of the first and second quarters, we now anticipate that the constraints on volume will moderate our full year revenue growth to between 3% and 4%, and bring adjusted earnings per share into a range of $2.40 to $2.50, which represents roughly 20% earnings per share growth over last year.
Our earnings per share in the quarter was $0.63.
Free cash flow conversion was 57% in the quarter, in line with our expectations, and we continue to expect full year of free cash flow conversion of 80% to 90%.
One more thing to mention, albeit with a slightly greater time horizon, there's been a lot of discussion about cross-border supply chains.
On the clean water side, demand for smart water solutions and digital offerings continues to be robust.
Our adjusted earnings per share guidance is now $2.40 to $2.50 which, at the midpoint, reflects a 19% increase in earnings per share over last year.
Full year 2021 free cash flow conversion is in line with previous guidance at 80% to 90%, putting our three-year average right around 130%.