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 American Electric Power Company (AEP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, American Electric Power Company generated $7.01B of operating cash flow and $7.65B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 109.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did American Electric Power Company (AEP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

American Electric Power Company (AEP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$7.01B

Capex

$642M

Free Cash Flow

$7.65B

FCF Margin

+109.1%

Cash flow waterfall for American Electric Power Company (AEP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $7.65B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for American Electric Power Company (AEP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$7.01B	$7.01B
Capital Expenditure	$642M	$7.65B
Free Cash Flow	$7.65B	$7.65B
Acquisitions	-$3.23B	$4.43B
Other Investing	-$8B	-$3.57B
Dividends Paid	-$2.03B	-$5.6B
Net Debt Change	$4.68B	-$921M
Other Financing & FX	$968M	$47M
Net Cash Increase	$47M	$47M

Operating Cash Flow$7.01B
Capital Expenditure$642M
Free Cash Flow$7.65B
Acquisitions-$3.23B
Other Investing-$8B
Dividends Paid-$2.03B
Net Debt Change$4.68B
Other Financing & FX$968M
Net Cash Increase$47M

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

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