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 Air Products and Chemicals (APD) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Air Products and Chemicals generated $4.12B of operating cash flow and $1.11B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 26.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Air Products and Chemicals (APD) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.12B

Capex

-$3.01B

Free Cash Flow

$1.11B

FCF Margin

+26.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Air Products and Chemicals (APD) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.11B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Air Products and Chemicals (APD) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.12B	$4.12B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.01B	$1.11B
Free Cash Flow	$1.11B	$1.11B
Acquisitions	-$84.9M	$1.02B
Other Investing	-$1.97B	-$947M
Dividends Paid	-$1.59B	-$2.54B
Net Debt Change	$1.69B	-$854M
Other Financing & FX	$314M	-$540M
Net Cash Decrease	-$540M	-$540M

Operating Cash Flow$4.12B
Capital Expenditure-$3.01B
Free Cash Flow$1.11B
Acquisitions-$84.9M
Other Investing-$1.97B
Dividends Paid-$1.59B
Net Debt Change$1.69B
Other Financing & FX$314M
Net Cash Decrease-$540M

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

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