Hello, and welcome to the presentation of RaySearch Interim Report for the first quarter of 2024. My name is Eva Nelson, and I will be the moderator here today. Joining us in today's call is, as always, Johan Löf, RaySearch founder and CEO, and also the interim CFO, Annika Blondeau Henriksson. Johan and Annika will give you a short summary of the quarter, including the financials, and after that, we open up for questions, which you can either ask orally in the call or submit in the text field under the presentation. So if you want to ask a question orally, you need to be in the call.
I'd also want to remind you that this session is recorded, and you can find it through the same link as you used for this call and on RaySearch website. With that, I hand over to you.
Johan, please, go ahead.
Thank you, Eva. I would also like to welcome all of you to today's webcast. It's great to see that our positive momentum has continued in the first quarter of 2024, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of record-breaking sales, the highest ever for a corresponding quarter. Sales for the first quarter amounted to SEK 257 million, up by 12% compared to the year-on-year period. Operating profit was SEK 46 million, resulting in an operating margin of 18%. This is a significant improvement from the previous year's 10%. The improved margin was largely driven by increased sales, where we maintain our momentum. Order intake for the first quarter was SEK 239 million, which is a 15% increase compared to last year.
Our cash flow for the quarter was SEK 88 million. So to summarize, RaySearch has a strong financial position with cash and cash equivalents of SEK 440 million and stable cash flow and no loans. As we announced yesterday, the next version of RayCare, 2024 A, has been certified as interoperable with Varian's TrueBeam linear accelerator. This means that the new certificate is in place before the launch of RayCare 2024 A, which will happen later this month. In technical evaluation of different oncology information systems, RayCare has received very positive reviews. With its advanced functionality, combined with the fact that the system can now connect to all LINACs in the TrueBeam family, RayCare is a very attractive alternative to competing systems. We see a growing interest in RayCare from both new and existing customers.
One example is, Raigmore Hospital in Scotland. They have been using RayStation with their TrueBeam LINAC for many years and are now replacing their existing oncology information system, an older version of ARIA from Varian, with RayCare. In January, we signed an agreement for RayStation and RayCare with the Royal Marsden in the U.K. They will be the first center in the world to implement online adaptive radiotherapy with RayStation and RayCare, in combination with the Radixact treatment delivery system from Accuray. In February, we acquired the product DrugLog from the Uppsala-based company, Pharmacolog. DrugLog verifies the identity and concentration of compounded injectable medications that are used for cancer treatment with chemotherapy.
Our long-term vision is to provide software support for all types of cancer treatments, including, chemotherapy, and as a first step, we plan to add support for treatment planning in RayStation and workflows in RayCare for chemotherapy management. We plan to launch our chemotherapy software package in 2026, and DrugLog excellent complement and significantly improve and simplify quality assurance in chemotherapy. So now let's take a closer look at the financials. So, Annika, please go ahead.
Thank you, Johan. On this slide, we present our key metrics for the first quarter of 2024. The order intake increased by 15% from SEK 207 million in Q1 2023 to SEK 239 million in Q1 2024. In the quarter, our order intake for licenses increased by 18% from SEK 95 million- SEK 112 million, and our order intake for support increased by 36% from SEK 59 million- SEK 80 million in 2024. Our net sales in the first quarter was not derived from any major order, but it mainly comprises of revenues from small and normalized-sized orders, which generated an increase in net sales by 12%, from SEK 230 million- SEK 257 million in Q1 2024. Adjusting for the exchange rate impact, net sales increased by 11% year-over-year.
In the quarter, net sales of licenses increased by 14% from SEK 104 million- SEK 190 million, and net sales of support increased by 23%, from SEK 87 million- SEK 107 million. Operating profit increased from SEK 24 million- SEK 46 million, which corresponds to an improved operating margin from a 10.3%-17.8% in the first quarter. The improvement, as mentioned by Johan, was generated from high net sale, but we also had slightly increased operating expenses related to personnel, as the number of employees at the end of the period has increased from 376 to 398 persons.
Furthermore, a number of development projects were activated during the period June to December in 2023, which led to increased depreciation in quarter one this year. Lastly, cash flow for the period was positive SEK 88 million, generated from customer contracts with advance payment for license and support to be delivered. This increase made the cash and cash equivalents amount to SEK 440 million at the end of March. Next page, please. This graph displays order intake and net sales for the past three years in a rolling twelve months perspective. At the end of first quarter 2024, our twelve-months rolling order intake amounts to approximately SEK 1 billion, compared to SEK 1.1 billion at the end of Q1 2023.
Adjusting for the large order from IBA in Q4 2022, the order intake in the rolling twelve months period of 2024 is slightly increasing. The past twelve months net sales in a rolling twelve months perspective is an increase by 21% to over SEK 1 billion in net sales. So the trend line for both order intake and net sales shows steady growth. And at the end of the period, total order backlog amounted to SEK 1,848 million, of which SEK 496 million is expected to generate revenue over the next twelve months. The remaining amount in the order backlog mainly pertains to support commitments that are primarily expected to generate revenue during the coming four years. On this slide, we present RaySearch's quarterly operating result for the past three years.
The operating profit in the first quarter is the seventh consecutive quarter, with a positive operating profit of SEK 46 million. Back to you, Johan.
Thank you, Annika. Yeah, so, so with another sales record, a robust order backlog of SEK 1.8 billion, and continuously growing support revenue, I look forward to a year of continued growth. We continue to focus on improving our operating margin, and we reiterate that the target of a minimum of 20% by the end of 2026 remains, and we are feel quite confident that we can reach that target. Thank you.
Thank you, Johan and Annika, and we now open up for questions. So, operator, over to you.
We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use only handsets while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. Once again, if you wish to register a question, you may press star and one. There are no questions over the phone.
And no written questions, either, actually. So, I suppose there are no questions then. I'll give it a second. No?
No.
Okay, then. I'd like to thank you for your participation. We conclude this session, and we look forward to continue talking to you. If not before, then it will be when the interim report for the second quarter of 2024 will be presented, and that is on the sixteenth of August. Lastly, I'd like to remind you that you can always find the presentation through the same link as you used for this call and also on RaySearch website. Thank you for your participation today, and goodbye!