The collective efforts of our folks generated consolidated sales of $227 million for the third quarter, split almost equally between our Metal Coatings and Infrastructure Solutions segments.
We had sequential improvement in operating performance, and we have returned over $44 million of capital to shareholders in the form of cash dividends and share repurchases through the third quarter of this year.
While sales were down 22% from Q3 of last year, our realignment activities and operational performance generated net income of $19.7 million, down about 10% from the same period of the prior year.
This resulted in earnings per share of $0.76 per diluted share, or $0.80 on an adjusted basis.
Hot-dip galvanizing sales were down 8.8% from the same quarter last year, while Surface Technologies was down more due to the nature of their customer base being more impacted by COVID.
Our actions during the quarter included recording a loss on the sale of SMS of $1.9 million and initiating a comprehensive Board-led review of our businesses with the assistance of leading independent financial, legal and tax advisors.
Finally, given the share repurchases currently and attractive use of our capital, we repurchased over 652,000 shares in the quarter, which brings our total for the year to over 850,000 shares.
While our Metal Coatings segment had lower sales in the third quarter of the prior year, they were able to generate higher operating income and improved operating margins to 24.8%.
Our Infrastructure Solutions segment's third quarter fiscal 2021 sales decreased by 31.5% to $111 million.
This resulted in operating income of $8.7 million as compared to $17.4 million in Q3 a year ago.
For the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, we reported sales, as Tom had noted, of $226.6 million, a $64.5 million decrease or 22.2% lower than the third quarter of the prior year.
Net income for the third quarter of fiscal '21 was $19.7 million, a decrease of $2.3 million or 10.6% below the prior year third quarter.
Diluted earnings per share of $0.76 per share declined 9.5% compared to the $0.84 per share in the prior year third quarter.
Despite the lower sales, third quarter fiscal 2021 gross margin improved 100 basis points to 24.1% on a year-over-year basis and was driven by continued strong margin performance within the Metal Coatings segment.
Operating margins of 12.3% of sales increased 80 basis points compared to 11.5% of sales in the prior year.
Operating income for the third quarter of fiscal 2021 decreased 16.6% to $27.9 million from $33.4 million in the prior year third quarter.
Third quarter EBITDA of $39.6 million decreased 15.4%, compared to $46.8 million in EBITDA in last year's third quarter.
As for the year-to-date results, through the third quarter of fiscal '21, we reported year-to-date sales of $643.3 million, 21.2% below the $816.5 million in sales in the same period last year.
Year-to-date net income for the third quarter was $23.5 million, a decrease of $35.4 million or 60.2% from the same period last year.
Year-to-date net income, as adjusted for the restructuring and impairment charges primarily incurred earlier in the year was $39 million, which was $19.9 million or 33.8% lower than the comparable prior year results.
Year-to-date reported diluted earnings per share declined 59.8% to $0.90 a share as compared to $2.24 per share for the same period last year, primarily driven by restructuring and impairment charges, as well as softer markets and travel restrictions resulting from the pandemic, mostly in our Infrastructure Solutions segment.
On an adjusted basis, year-to-date 2021 diluted earnings per share was $1.49 per share, a reduction of 33.5% from the prior year.
Our fiscal year 2021 year-to-date gross margin of 22.2% declined 60 basis points from a gross margin of 22.8% from the prior year.
Year-to-date reported operating profit of $42.8 million was $43.8 million or 50.5% lower than the $86.6 million reported for the same period last year.
Year-to-date reported operating margin of 6.7% decreased 390 basis points compared to 10.6% last year.
On a year-to-date basis, excluding the impact of the $20.3 million of restructuring and impairment charges, operating margins were 9.8% or 80 basis points below prior year.
On a year-to-date basis, our net cash provided by operating activities of $59.4 million declined $12.7 million or 17.6% from the comparable period in the prior year, primarily the impact of lower year-to-date net income.
During the third quarter of fiscal 2021, as Tom had noted, we repurchased 652,000 shares of our common stock at an average price of $37.66.
On a year-to-date basis, we have repurchased 852,000 million [phonetic] shares at an average price of $36.31 per share.
Investments in capital equipment to support our business were $8.6 million for the third quarter and $27.9 million on a year-to-date basis, which are in line with our expectations of spending roughly $35 million for the year.
As of the end of our third quarter of fiscal '21, our existing debt of $182 million is down $20.9 million from the end of the year, as we continue to effectively manage our balance sheet.
The Acme Galvanizing team is being quickly integrated into our existing operating network, bringing our total hot-dip galvanizing locations to a market-leading 40 sites in North America, in spite of recently closing two Gulf Coast locations.
Post-COVID crisis, we remain committed to our growth strategy around Metal Coatings and achieving 21% to 23% operating margins, including an increased contribution from Surface Technologies.
We believe galvanizing would tend to run to the high end, if not above the 23%, while Surface Technologies is going to have to rebuild this margin profile as customer demand grows.

Summary:
This resulted in earnings per share of $0.76 per diluted share, or $0.80 on an adjusted basis.
For the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, we reported sales, as Tom had noted, of $226.6 million, a $64.5 million decrease or 22.2% lower than the third quarter of the prior year.
Diluted earnings per share of $0.76 per share declined 9.5% compared to the $0.84 per share in the prior year third quarter.
Despite the lower sales, third quarter fiscal 2021 gross margin improved 100 basis points to 24.1% on a year-over-year basis and was driven by continued strong margin performance within the Metal Coatings segment.