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 ASML (ASMLF) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, ASML generated €11.13B of operating cash flow and €8.95B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 80.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did ASML (ASMLF) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

ASML (ASMLF) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

€11.13B

Capex

−€2.17B

Free Cash Flow

€8.95B

FCF Margin

+80.5%

Cash flow waterfall for ASML (ASMLF) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: €8.95B

Cash flow breakdown for ASML (ASMLF) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	€11.13B	€11.13B
Capital Expenditure	−€2.17B	€8.95B
Free Cash Flow	€8.95B	€8.95B
Acquisitions	−€1.21B	€7.74B
Other Investing	−€1.02B	€6.72B
Share Buybacks	−€4.36B	€2.36B
Dividends Paid	−€2.57B	−€209.83M
Net Debt Change	−€1.03B	−€1.24B
Other Financing & FX	€113.16M	−€1.13B
Net Cash Decrease	−€1.13B	−€1.13B

Operating Cash Flow€11.13B
Capital Expenditure−€2.17B
Free Cash Flow€8.95B
Acquisitions−€1.21B
Other Investing−€1.02B
Share Buybacks−€4.36B
Dividends Paid−€2.57B
Net Debt Change−€1.03B
Other Financing & FX€113.16M
Net Cash Decrease−€1.13B

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

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