What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Apple (AAPL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Apple generated $140B of operating cash flow and $129B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Apple (AAPL) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Apple's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Apple (AAPL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$140B

Capex

-$11B

Free Cash Flow

$129B

FCF Margin

+92.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Apple (AAPL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $129B

Cash flow breakdown for Apple (AAPL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$140B	$140B
Capital Expenditure	-$11B	$129B
Free Cash Flow	$129B	$129B
Other Investing	$2.48B	$132B
Share Buybacks	-$78.2B	$53.5B
Dividends Paid	-$15.6B	$37.9B
Net Debt Change	-$14.3B	$23.6B
Other Financing & FX	-$6.17B	$17.4B
Net Cash Increase	$17.4B	$17.4B

Operating Cash Flow$140B
Capital Expenditure-$11B
Free Cash Flow$129B
Other Investing$2.48B
Share Buybacks-$78.2B
Dividends Paid-$15.6B
Net Debt Change-$14.3B
Other Financing & FX-$6.17B
Net Cash Increase$17.4B

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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