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 Management (ARES) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ares Management generated $1.68B of operating cash flow and $1.61B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 96.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ares Management (ARES) 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 Management's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Ares Management (ARES) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.68B

Capex

-$65.8M

Free Cash Flow

$1.61B

FCF Margin

+96.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Ares Management (ARES) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.61B

Cash flow breakdown for Ares Management (ARES) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.68B	$1.68B
Capital Expenditure	-$65.8M	$1.61B
Free Cash Flow	$1.61B	$1.61B
Other Investing	$337M	$1.95B
Share Buybacks	-$538M	$1.41B
Dividends Paid	-$1.83B	-$422M
Net Debt Change	$678M	$256M
Other Financing	-$185M	$70.8M
Forex Effect	-$210M	-$140M
Net Cash Decrease	-$140M	-$140M

Operating Cash Flow$1.68B
Capital Expenditure-$65.8M
Free Cash Flow$1.61B
Other Investing$337M
Share Buybacks-$538M
Dividends Paid-$1.83B
Net Debt Change$678M
Other Financing-$185M
Forex Effect-$210M
Net Cash Decrease-$140M

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

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