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 Aptiv (APTV) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Aptiv generated $1.77B of operating cash flow and $1.09B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 61.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Aptiv (APTV) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Aptiv (APTV) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.77B

Capex

-$678M

Free Cash Flow

$1.09B

FCF Margin

+61.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Aptiv (APTV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.09B

Cash flow breakdown for Aptiv (APTV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.77B	$1.77B
Capital Expenditure	-$678M	$1.09B
Free Cash Flow	$1.09B	$1.09B
Other Investing	$162M	$1.25B
Share Buybacks	-$507M	$746M
Net Debt Change	$1.33B	$2.07B
Other Financing & FX	$3M	$2.08B
Net Cash Increase	$2.08B	$2.08B

Operating Cash Flow$1.77B
Capital Expenditure-$678M
Free Cash Flow$1.09B
Other Investing$162M
Share Buybacks-$507M
Net Debt Change$1.33B
Other Financing & FX$3M
Net Cash Increase$2.08B

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

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