And before handing the call over to John, you'll note that with our strong first quarter results and favorable outlook across a number of our markets, we raised our full year adjusted earnings per share forecast to approximately $7.50.
Our reported first quarter earnings per share was $5.52 compared to a loss of $1.46 in the first quarter 2020.
Our reported results include a net gain of $1.09 related to the previously announced sale of our Rotterdam oil refinery as well as our packaging plant in Mexico.
Reported results also include a mark-to-market timing difference of $1.30 per share.
Adjusted earnings per share was $3.13 in the quarter versus $0.91 in the prior year.
Adjusted core segment earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, were $737 million in the quarter versus $354 million in the prior year driven by strong performances in our Agribusiness and Refined and Specialty Oils segments.
Prior year results reflect less favorable environment and were also negatively impacted by approximately $25 million in FX translation losses of the joint venture due to depreciation of Brazilian real.
For the quarter, income tax expense was $192 million as compared to an income tax benefit of $55 million for the prior year.
Adjusted for notable items, the effective tax rate for the quarter was 21%.
Net interest expense of $64 million was in line with our expectations.
We achieved underlying addressable SG&A savings of $16 million, of which approximately 80% was related to indirect costs.
The most recent trailing 12-month period, our cash generation, excluding notable items and mark-to-market timing differences, were strong at approximately $2.2 billion of adjusted funds from operations.
This cash flow generation enabled us to comfortably fund our cash obligations over the past year and retained approximately $1.4 billion to strengthen our balance sheet in support of our credit rating objective of BBB/Baa2.
After allocating $32 million of sustaining capex, which includes maintenance, environmental, health and safety and $8 million to preferred dividends, we had $493 million of discretionary cash flow available.
Of this amount, we paid $71 million in common dividends to shareholders and invested $21 million in growth and productivity capex, leaving approximately $400 million of retained cash flow.
The $400 million of retained cash flow and other cash sources, including proceeds from the sale of assets, more than offset our approximately $700 million of cash outflow this quarter for working capital.
As a result, net debt decreased by approximately $100 million.
We also took action to increase our availability under committed credit lines to $5.8 billion, leaving us with ample liquidity to support potentially higher working capital needs.
As you can see on Slide 11, we further strengthened our balance sheet during the quarter to a point where the entirety of our net debt funded 91% of our readily marketable inventory with the 90% balance of RMI being funded with equity.
The trailing 12 months adjusted ROIC was 18.7% or 12.1 percentage points over our RMI adjusted weighted average cost of capital of 6.6%.
ROIC was 13.4%, 7.4 percentage points over our weighted average cost of capital of 6% and well above our stated target of 9%.
For the trailing 12 months, we produced a discretionary cash flow of almost $1.9 billion and a cash flow yield of nearly 29%.
As Greg mentioned in his remarks, taking into account our strong Q1 results, forward curves and market conditions, we've increased our full year adjusted earnings per share outlook from at least $6 per share to approximately $7.50 per share.
In Agribusiness, full year results are expected to be up from our previous expectations, but down from 2020.
In Refined and Specialty Oils, we expect full year results to be up from our previous outlook and significantly higher compared to last year due to strong first quarter results and positive demand trends in North America.
Results in Milling and Corporate and Other are expected to be generally in line with last year.
Additionally, the company expects the following for 2021: an adjusted annual effective tax rate in the range of 20% to 22%, net interest expense in the range of $230 million to $240 million, capital expenditures in the range of two -- $425 million to $475 million and depreciation and amortization of approximately $415 million.
As we noted, with our strong first quarter performance and what we see from the forward curves, we're forecasting full year earnings per share to be around $7.50.

Summary:
And before handing the call over to John, you'll note that with our strong first quarter results and favorable outlook across a number of our markets, we raised our full year adjusted earnings per share forecast to approximately $7.50.
Our reported first quarter earnings per share was $5.52 compared to a loss of $1.46 in the first quarter 2020.
Adjusted earnings per share was $3.13 in the quarter versus $0.91 in the prior year.
As Greg mentioned in his remarks, taking into account our strong Q1 results, forward curves and market conditions, we've increased our full year adjusted earnings per share outlook from at least $6 per share to approximately $7.50 per share.
In Agribusiness, full year results are expected to be up from our previous expectations, but down from 2020.
In Refined and Specialty Oils, we expect full year results to be up from our previous outlook and significantly higher compared to last year due to strong first quarter results and positive demand trends in North America.
Results in Milling and Corporate and Other are expected to be generally in line with last year.
Additionally, the company expects the following for 2021: an adjusted annual effective tax rate in the range of 20% to 22%, net interest expense in the range of $230 million to $240 million, capital expenditures in the range of two -- $425 million to $475 million and depreciation and amortization of approximately $415 million.
As we noted, with our strong first quarter performance and what we see from the forward curves, we're forecasting full year earnings per share to be around $7.50.