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 Ashland (ASH) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ashland generated $405M of operating cash flow and $334M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 82.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ashland (ASH) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ashland (ASH) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$405M

Capex

-$71M

Free Cash Flow

$334M

FCF Margin

+82.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Ashland (ASH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $334M

Cash flow breakdown for Ashland (ASH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$405M	$405M
Capital Expenditure	-$71M	$334M
Free Cash Flow	$334M	$334M
Other Investing	$11M	$345M
Dividends Paid	-$76M	$269M
Net Debt Change	-$100M	$169M
Other Financing	-$4M	$165M
Forex Effect	$41M	$206M
Net Cash Increase	$206M	$206M

Operating Cash Flow$405M
Capital Expenditure-$71M
Free Cash Flow$334M
Other Investing$11M
Dividends Paid-$76M
Net Debt Change-$100M
Other Financing-$4M
Forex Effect$41M
Net Cash Increase$206M

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

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