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 AbbVie (ABBV) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, AbbVie generated $21.2B of operating cash flow and $20.9B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 98.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did AbbVie (ABBV) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

AbbVie (ABBV) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$21.2B

Capex

-$359M

Free Cash Flow

$20.9B

FCF Margin

+98.3%

Cash flow waterfall for AbbVie (ABBV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $20.9B

Cash flow breakdown for AbbVie (ABBV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$21.2B	$21.2B
Capital Expenditure	-$359M	$20.9B
Free Cash Flow	$20.9B	$20.9B
Acquisitions	-$827M	$20B
Other Investing	-$5.3B	$14.7B
Share Buybacks	-$1.5B	$13.2B
Dividends Paid	-$11.8B	$1.42B
Net Debt Change	$2.63B	$4.05B
Other Financing & FX	$165M	$4.22B
Net Cash Increase	$4.22B	$4.22B

Operating Cash Flow$21.2B
Capital Expenditure-$359M
Free Cash Flow$20.9B
Acquisitions-$827M
Other Investing-$5.3B
Share Buybacks-$1.5B
Dividends Paid-$11.8B
Net Debt Change$2.63B
Other Financing & FX$165M
Net Cash Increase$4.22B

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

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