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 Automatic Data Processing (ADP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Automatic Data Processing generated $5.45B of operating cash flow and $5.15B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Automatic Data Processing (ADP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.45B

Capex

-$301M

Free Cash Flow

$5.15B

FCF Margin

+94.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Automatic Data Processing (ADP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $5.15B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for Automatic Data Processing (ADP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.45B	$5.45B
Capital Expenditure	-$301M	$5.15B
Free Cash Flow	$5.15B	$5.15B
Other Investing	-$3.03B	$2.12B
Share Buybacks	-$1.79B	$333M
Dividends Paid	-$2.57B	-$2.24B
Other Financing	$6.6B	$4.36B
Forex Effect	$3.85B	$8.21B
Net Cash Increase	$8.21B	$8.21B

Operating Cash Flow$5.45B
Capital Expenditure-$301M
Free Cash Flow$5.15B
Other Investing-$3.03B
Share Buybacks-$1.79B
Dividends Paid-$2.57B
Other Financing$6.6B
Forex Effect$3.85B
Net Cash Increase$8.21B

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

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