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 Albemarle (ALB) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Albemarle generated $1.08B of operating cash flow and $577M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 53.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Albemarle (ALB) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Albemarle (ALB) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.08B

Capex

-$506M

Free Cash Flow

$577M

FCF Margin

+53.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Albemarle (ALB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $577M

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

Cash flow breakdown for Albemarle (ALB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.08B	$1.08B
Capital Expenditure	-$506M	$577M
Free Cash Flow	$577M	$577M
Other Investing	$1.08B	$1.66B
Dividends Paid	-$357M	$1.3B
Net Debt Change	-$1.72B	-$422M
Other Financing	-$48.1M	-$470M
Forex Effect	$41.4M	-$429M
Net Cash Decrease	-$429M	-$429M

Operating Cash Flow$1.08B
Capital Expenditure-$506M
Free Cash Flow$577M
Other Investing$1.08B
Dividends Paid-$357M
Net Debt Change-$1.72B
Other Financing-$48.1M
Forex Effect$41.4M
Net Cash Decrease-$429M

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

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