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 Ares Capital (ARCC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ares Capital generated $1.07B of operating cash flow and $1.07B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 100% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ares Capital (ARCC) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ares Capital (ARCC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.07B

Capex

$0.00

Free Cash Flow

$1.07B

FCF Margin

+100.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Ares Capital (ARCC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.07B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Ares Capital (ARCC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.07B	$1.07B
Capital Expenditure	$0.00	$1.07B
Free Cash Flow	$1.07B	$1.07B
Other Investing	-$2.31B	-$1.23B
Dividends Paid	-$1.3B	-$2.54B
Net Debt Change	$1.95B	-$586M
Other Financing & FX	$499M	-$87M
Net Cash Decrease	-$87M	-$87M

Operating Cash Flow$1.07B
Capital Expenditure$0.00
Free Cash Flow$1.07B
Other Investing-$2.31B
Dividends Paid-$1.3B
Net Debt Change$1.95B
Other Financing & FX$499M
Net Cash Decrease-$87M

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

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