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 Align Technology (ALGN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Align Technology generated $692M of operating cash flow and $686M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Align Technology (ALGN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Align Technology (ALGN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$692M

Capex

-$5.5M

Free Cash Flow

$686M

FCF Margin

+99.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Align Technology (ALGN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $686M

Cash flow breakdown for Align Technology (ALGN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$692M	$692M
Capital Expenditure	-$5.5M	$686M
Free Cash Flow	$686M	$686M
Acquisitions	-$19M	$667M
Other Investing	-$194M	$473M
Share Buybacks	-$221M	$252M
Other Financing	-$85.4M	$167M
Forex Effect	$20.2M	$187M
Net Cash Increase	$187M	$187M

Operating Cash Flow$692M
Capital Expenditure-$5.5M
Free Cash Flow$686M
Acquisitions-$19M
Other Investing-$194M
Share Buybacks-$221M
Other Financing-$85.4M
Forex Effect$20.2M
Net Cash Increase$187M

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

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Buybacks1.80% TTM

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