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 Arm (ARM) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Arm generated $1.52B of operating cash flow and $951M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 62.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Arm (ARM) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Arm (ARM) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.52B

Capex

-$573M

Free Cash Flow

$951M

FCF Margin

+62.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Arm (ARM) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $951M

Cash flow breakdown for Arm (ARM) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.52B	$1.52B
Capital Expenditure	-$573M	$951M
Free Cash Flow	$951M	$951M
Acquisitions	$117M	$1.07B
Other Investing	$131M	$1.2B
Share Buybacks	-$287M	$912M
Other Financing & FX	-$246M	$666M
Net Cash Increase	$666M	$666M

Operating Cash Flow$1.52B
Capital Expenditure-$573M
Free Cash Flow$951M
Acquisitions$117M
Other Investing$131M
Share Buybacks-$287M
Other Financing & FX-$246M
Net Cash Increase$666M

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

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Buybacks0.18% TTM

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