In light of new information or future events. I would now like to turn the meeting over to the company's Chair of the Board, Ms. Helen McCluskey. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Thanks for joining us today. On behalf of the Board, including our Chief Executive Officer and Director, J.K. Symancyk , welcome to the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Signet Jewelers Limited. In addition to the independent members of our Board, we're pleased to have J.K., Joan Hilson, Chief Operating and Financial Officer, Stash Ptak , Chief Legal Compliance and Risk Officer, and Karen Cho, our Chief People Officer, representatives from KPMG, our independent auditors, as well as several other members of management in attendance at our virtual meeting today. It is a privilege to serve as Chair and represent our Board. We continue our focus on supporting and guiding management as they advance the Grow Brand Love strategy with the goal of driving strong marketplace performance and delivering long-term shareholder value.
I want to recognize and thank our more than 27,000 team members whose dedication, passion, and hard work continue to power our progress and achievements. And to our shareholders, thank you for your continued trust, support, and input. It is essential to our success and deeply appreciated. Since our last annual meeting, the Board has continued to evolve corporate governance. We established a standalone technology committee to enhance our oversight of technology strategy, data privacy, cyber risk, and Signet's investments in artificial intelligence, e-commerce, digital innovation, and cybersecurity. We shifted oversight of sustainability into the Governance, Nominations and Sustainability Committee, underscoring our integrated approach. We also updated our Director Refreshment Policy, placing greater emphasis on skills and individual performance evaluation. After more than eight years of dedicated service, Nancy Reardon is not standing for re-election at this year's annual meeting.
We are very grateful for Nancy's exceptional contributions, including her impactful leadership as Chair of the Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee. Her insight, commitment, and steady guidance have been invaluable to the Board and the company, and we thank her for her service. While we say goodbye to Nancy, we are excited to welcome our newest Board member, Jeff Gennette, who was appointed on May 6th and is standing for election and shareholder approval for the first time at today's meeting. Jeff has been appointed to the Board's Human Capital Management and Compensation Committee and the Finance Committee. He brings enthusiasm for jewelry and over 40 years of retail leadership experience, including as Chair and CEO of Macy's, where he led the company through significant growth and transformation.
His perspective on building brands and his strategic and operational expertise across merchandising, marketing, digital transformation, and store operations are strong assets to be leveraged by the Board and company. Before moving on to the formal agenda, I will briefly touch on our recent performance. Fiscal 2026 delivered $6.8 billion in sales, $2.7 billion in gross margin, an adjusted EPS of $9.60. The company also continued to return capital to shareholders, including raising our quarterly common dividend for the fifth year in a row and repurchased over $205 million worth of its common shares during fiscal 2026. Fiscal 2027 is off to a good start with over $1.5 billion in Q1 sales and more than $78 million in adjusted operating income, up nearly 12% from last year. Moving on to the procedures for today's meeting.
During the meeting, we will follow the agenda and rules of conduct, both of which can be found on the virtual meeting web portal. Please note that this meeting is being recorded. However, no one attending via the webcast or telephone is permitted to use any audio recording device to record the proceedings. After all proposals are introduced, validated shareholders will have an opportunity to ask questions relating to the business of the meeting, which may be typed into the designated field on the virtual meeting web portal. In answering your questions, I may refer to my colleagues or our independent auditors. After the formal portion of the meeting has adjourned, we will provide time for general questions. Please note, we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that are germane to the meeting and not repetitive of other submitted questions will be addressed.
If you submit a question that is not addressed during today's meeting, you may contact the company's investor relations group for further information. The investor relations group's contact information can be found on the company's website under Investors. Due to the virtual aspect of this meeting, instead of a show of hands, voting on the various resolutions will be conducted by way of a poll. While you may vote any time during the meeting up until the polls are designated closed, a call to vote on the resolutions will be deferred until the end of the meeting. Broadridge Financial Solutions, the appointed Inspector of Elections, will conduct the polls. Please note that you don't need to vote again during this meeting if you have already sent in your proxy or voted via telephone or internet, unless you wish to change your prior votes.
The holders of the proxies that have been submitted for use at this meeting are Stash Ptak and Matt Shady, Signet's Corporate Secretary. At the appropriate time, I will record the votes of shareholders who have completed the proxy forms in accordance with the directions contained in them. Following the meeting, the results of the vote will be filed with the SEC and posted on the company's website. Only shareholders who were recorded in the company's shareholder register at the close of business on May 1st, 2026, are entitled to vote. On the record date, there were 39,652,361 common shares outstanding, excluding treasury shares. Let's turn to the business of the meeting. The Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Signet Jewelers Limited is now called to order. I appoint Matt Shady as keeper of the minutes of today's meeting.
The Board of Directors has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions, represented by Peter Descovich, as Inspector of Elections. Peter has taken the oath of Inspector of Elections. We have received an affidavit of mailing from Broadridge certifying that the notice of internet availability of proxy materials was sent to all shareholders registered as of the record date. Peter has reported that a sufficient number of shareholders are present at this meeting to constitute a quorum of shareholders under our bylaws. Due notice of this meeting has been given, and all other legal requirements for holding this meeting have been satisfied so that this meeting is properly organized for the transaction of business. I'll now hand off to Matt Shady, who will provide the details of the agenda items for today's meeting.
We will now proceed with the consideration of and voting on the proposal described in the notice convening this meeting and detailed in our 2026 proxy statement filed with the SEC on May 14th, 2026. Holders of common shares are entitled to one vote per share for each of the proposals presented. Approval of each proposal requires the affirmative vote of a majority of the votes cast on such proposal. The Board of Directors has recommended that you vote for each director nominee named in the proxy statement and for proposals two and three as set forth in the proxy statement. Proposal one is the election of directors to serve until the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. All of our director nominees' biographies are described in the proxy statement.
The 11 nominees for election are Helen McCluskey, J.K. Symancyk, André B. Branch, Sandra B. Cochran, Jeff Gennette, R. Mark Graf, Zackery A. Hicks, Sharon L. McCollam, Brian Tilzer, Eugenia Ulasewicz, and Dontá L. Wilson. Proposal two is the appointment of KPMG LLP as independent registered public accounting firm of the company to hold office from the conclusion of this meeting until the conclusion of the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders of the company, and to authorize the audit committee to determine its compensation. Ron Marcin and Sara Rufo from KPMG LLP are attending this meeting and are available to respond to appropriate questions. Proposal three is the approval on a non-binding advisory basis of the compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement, also known as the Say on Pay vote.
If any shareholder would like to make a comment or ask a question regarding any of the proposals, please submit your comment or question through the web portal at this time. There are no questions at this time.
Thanks, Matt. I'll now formally move the resolutions to elect each of the 11 directors of the company, as in proposal one, and to approve each of proposals two and three as presented in the proxy statement and notice convening this meeting. I call for a poll to be taken on proposals one through three at this time and will hand over the proceedings to Mr. Descovich of Broadridge, who will explain and conduct a poll for each proposal.
At the beginning of this meeting, the preliminary polling results representing votes received by Broadridge in person or by proxy were provided to the Chair. At this time, if there is anyone who has yet to vote or who would like to change their vote, you may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. If you have already sent in a proxy or voted via telephone or internet and do not want to change your vote, you do not need to take any further action at this time. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I now declare the polls for the 2026 Signet Jewelers Limited Annual General Meeting closed at 11:43 A.M. Eastern Time.
Based on the votes cast for today's meeting, I can confirm that all of the nominated directors have been reappointed to Signet's Board of Directors and all other proposals have been passed. My final report will be provided to the company and entered into the minutes of today's meeting. I now hand back the meeting to Ms. McCluskey as Chair of the meeting.
Thank you, Peter. Please turn your attention to the presentation of the company's audited financial statements for the fiscal year ended January 31st, 2026, which are available for your review at this meeting on the virtual meeting web portal. At this time, I invite any general questions shareholders may have in relation to the annual report and financial statements.
Thanks, Helen. There are no questions at this time.
Thank you, Matt. With that, since no other questions have been properly brought before the meeting today, business is concluded, and our Annual General Meeting of Shareholders is now complete. Thank you for your support of our company and for attending today's meeting.
That concludes our meeting today. You may now disconnect.