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 APA (APA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, APA generated $4B of operating cash flow and $1.49B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 37.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did APA (APA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

APA (APA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4B

Capex

-$2.52B

Free Cash Flow

$1.49B

FCF Margin

+37.1%

Cash flow waterfall for APA (APA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.49B

Cash flow breakdown for APA (APA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4B	$4B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.52B	$1.49B
Free Cash Flow	$1.49B	$1.49B
Acquisitions	$592M	$2.08B
Other Investing	$17M	$2.09B
Share Buybacks	-$180M	$1.91B
Dividends Paid	-$357M	$1.56B
Net Debt Change	-$956M	$601M
Other Financing & FX	-$375M	$226M
Net Cash Increase	$226M	$226M

Operating Cash Flow$4B
Capital Expenditure-$2.52B
Free Cash Flow$1.49B
Acquisitions$592M
Other Investing$17M
Share Buybacks-$180M
Dividends Paid-$357M
Net Debt Change-$956M
Other Financing & FX-$375M
Net Cash Increase$226M

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

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