Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the second quarter of fiscal year 2024 were $11,461,000, or 25% of sales, compared to $11,592,000, or 22% of sales, in the corresponding fiscal year 2023 period, and included an unfavorable currency impact of $14,000, when translating foreign expenses to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. Selling, general, and administrative expenses for the first six months of fiscal year 2024 were $22,976,000, or 25% of sales, compared to $23,076,000, or 21% of sales, in the corresponding fiscal year 2023 period, and included an unfavorable currency impact of $182,000, when translating foreign expenses to U.S. dollars for financial reporting purposes. Selling, general, and administrative expenses as a percentage of sales increased in the second quarter and first six months of fiscal year 2024 compared to each of the corresponding prior year periods due to the lower volume of sales year-over-year.
The effective tax rates for the second quarter and first six months of fiscal year 2024 were (1)% and 9%, respectively, compared to 44% and 35% in each of the corresponding prior year periods. The year-over-year decreases in the effective tax rates were primarily due to changes in geographic mix of income and loss that includes jurisdictions with differing tax rates, a discrete item related to stock compensation and the impact of valuation allowances on an overall lower level of income before taxes.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $37,542,000 at April 30, 2024, compared to $41,784,000 at October 31, 2023. Working capital was $187,574,000 at April 30, 2024, compared to $193,257,000 at October 31, 2023. The decrease in working capital was primarily driven by decreases in accounts receivable, net and cash and cash equivalents, partially offset by increases in inventories, net and prepaid and other assets and decreases in accounts payable and accrued payroll and employee benefits.
Hurco Companies, Inc. is an international, industrial technology company that sells its three brands of computer numeric control (“CNC”) machine tools to the worldwide metal cutting and metal forming industry. Two of the Company’s brands of machine tools, Hurco and Milltronics, are equipped with interactive controls that include software that is proprietary to each respective brand. The Company designs these controls and develops the software. The third brand of CNC machine tools, Takumi, is equipped with industrial controls that are produced by third parties, which allows the customer to decide the type of control added to the Takumi CNC machine tool. The Company also produces high-value machine tool components and accessories and provides automation solutions that can be integrated with any machine tool. The end markets for the Company's products are independent job shops, short-run manufacturing operations within large corporations, and manufacturers with production-oriented operations. The Company’s customers manufacture precision parts, tools, dies, and/or molds for industries such as aerospace, defense, medical equipment, energy, transportation, and computer equipment. The Company is based in Indianapolis, Indiana, with manufacturing operations in Taiwan, Italy, the U.S., and China, and sells its products through direct and indirect sales forces throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The Company has sales, application engineering support and service subsidiaries in China, the Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, the U.S., and Taiwan. Web Site: www.hurco.com