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 Atmos Energy (ATO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Atmos Energy generated $1.88B of operating cash flow and -$1.99B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -106.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Atmos Energy (ATO) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Atmos Energy (ATO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.88B

Capex

-$3.87B

Free Cash Flow

-$1.99B

FCF Margin

-106.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Atmos Energy (ATO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$1.99B

Cash flow breakdown for Atmos Energy (ATO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.88B	$1.88B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.87B	-$1.99B
Free Cash Flow	-$1.99B	-$1.99B
Other Investing	-$12M	-$2B
Dividends Paid	-$604M	-$2.61B
Net Debt Change	$1.08B	-$1.53B
Other Financing & FX	$1.11B	-$418M
Net Cash Decrease	-$418M	-$418M

Operating Cash Flow$1.88B
Capital Expenditure-$3.87B
Free Cash Flow-$1.99B
Other Investing-$12M
Dividends Paid-$604M
Net Debt Change$1.08B
Other Financing & FX$1.11B
Net Cash Decrease-$418M

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

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