Good day, welcome to the Evertz Q1 2022 conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Brian Campbell, Executive Vice President of Business Development. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you, Bobby. Good afternoon, everyone, welcome to the Evertz Technologies Limited conference call for our fiscal 2022 first quarter, ended July 31st, 2021, with Doug Moore, Evertz Chief Financial Officer, and myself, Brian Campbell. Please note that our financial press release and MD&A will be available on SEDAR. Doug and I will comment on the financial results then open the call to your questions. Turning now to Evertz results, I'd like to begin by providing a few highlights, then Doug will go into greater detail. First off, I'm pleased to report sales for the first quarter totaled CAD 97.2 million, up 72% from the first quarter last year. This strong rebound from our first fiscal quarter of 2021 was experienced across all geographic regions and was driven predominantly by the adoption of Evertz new technologies and products.
Our sales base is well diversified, with the top 10 customers accounting for approximately 42% of sales during the quarter, and with no single customer over 9%. In fact, we had 134 customer orders of over CAD 200,000. Gross margin in the quarter was CAD 56.7 million, or 58.3% of sales, which is in the upper half of our target range. Investment in research and development during the quarter totaled CAD 24.7 million. Net earnings for the first quarter were CAD 14.7 million, while fully diluted earnings per share were CAD 0.19 in the quarter. Evertz working capital was CAD 217 million, with CAD 131.6 million in cash as at July 31st, 2021. The purchase order backlog was a record high CAD 151 million at the end of August, and shipments during the month were CAD 40 million.
We attribute this strong financial performance and robust combined shipments and purchase order backlog to the ongoing technical transition in the industry, channel and video services proliferation, increasing global demand for high-quality video anywhere, anytime, and specifically to the growing adoption of Evertz IP-based software-defined video networking solutions, Evertz IT and cloud solutions, our immersive 4K UHD solutions, our state-of-the-art DreamCatcher IP replay and live production suite, and BRAVO Studio. Today, Evertz Board of Directors has declared a quarterly dividend of CAD 0.18 per share payable on or about October 5th, 2021. Evertz Board of Directors also declared a special dividend of CAD 1.00 per share, also payable on October 5th. Special dividend reflects both the strong long-term operating performance of the company and its solid balance sheet, thereby enabling a distribution of cash over and above what is considered necessary to meet known commitments and to maintain adequate reserves.
I will now hand over to Doug Moore, Evertz Chief Financial Officer, to cover our results in greater detail.
Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. Sales were CAD 97.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2022 compared to CAD 56.3 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2021, an increase of CAD 40.9 million or 72%. The U.S./Canada region had sales for the quarter of CAD 64.4 million compared to CAD 35.9 million last year, an increase of 79%.
The international region had sales for the quarter CAD 32.8 million compared to CAD 20.4 million last year, an increase of 60%. Gross margin for the first quarter was approximately 58.3% compared to 57.2% in the prior year. Gross margin was within the company's target range. Selling and administrative expenses were CAD 14 million for the first quarter as compared to CAD 11.9 million in the same period last year. Selling and admin expenses as a percentage of revenue was 14.4% compared to 21.2% in the same period last year.
Research and development expenses were CAD 24.7 million for the first quarter as compared to CAD 16.6 million in the same period last year. Research and development expenses as a percentage of revenue was 25.4% compared to 29.4% in the same period last year. Foreign exchange gain was CAD 1.4 million as compared to a foreign exchange loss in the prior year of CAD 3.1 million. The gain in the quarter was predominantly a result of the increase in the value of the US dollar as at July 31st when compared to April 30th. Turning to a discussion of liquidity of the company, cash as at July 31st, 2021, was CAD 131.6 million compared to CAD 108.8 million as at April 30th, 2021. Working capital was CAD 217 million as at July 31st compared to CAD 214.5 million at the end of April.
The company generated cash and operations of CAD 38 million, which is gross of a CAD 20.7 million change in non-cash working capital and current taxes in the quarter. If the effects of the change in non-cash working capital and taxes were excluded from the calculation, the company generated CAD 17.3 million in cash from operations. The company acquired CAD 1.1 million of capital assets, the company used cash from financing activities of CAD 15.1 million, which predominantly consisted of a payment of dividends of