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 AppLovin (APP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, AppLovin generated $4.43B of operating cash flow and $4.4B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did AppLovin (APP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

AppLovin (APP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.43B

Capex

-$28.3M

Free Cash Flow

$4.4B

FCF Margin

+99.4%

Cash flow waterfall for AppLovin (APP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.4B

Cash flow breakdown for AppLovin (APP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.43B	$4.43B
Capital Expenditure	-$28.3M	$4.4B
Free Cash Flow	$4.4B	$4.4B
Other Investing	$404M	$4.81B
Share Buybacks	-$2.17B	$2.63B
Net Debt Change	-$421M	$2.21B
Other Financing & FX	-$5.71M	$2.21B
Net Cash Increase	$2.21B	$2.21B

Operating Cash Flow$4.43B
Capital Expenditure-$28.3M
Free Cash Flow$4.4B
Other Investing$404M
Share Buybacks-$2.17B
Net Debt Change-$421M
Other Financing & FX-$5.71M
Net Cash Increase$2.21B

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

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Capital Return

Buybacks1.62% TTM

How this company returns cash to shareholders — buybacks, dividends, and stock splits.

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