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 Avista (AVA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Avista generated $464M of operating cash flow and -$153M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -33% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Avista (AVA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Avista (AVA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$464M

Capex

-$617M

Free Cash Flow

-$153M

FCF Margin

-33.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Avista (AVA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$153M

Cash flow breakdown for Avista (AVA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$464M	$464M
Capital Expenditure	-$617M	-$153M
Free Cash Flow	-$153M	-$153M
Other Investing	$8M	-$145M
Net Debt Change	$64M	-$81M
Other Financing & FX	$82M	$1M
Net Cash Increase	$1M	$1M

Operating Cash Flow$464M
Capital Expenditure-$617M
Free Cash Flow-$153M
Other Investing$8M
Net Debt Change$64M
Other Financing & FX$82M
Net Cash Increase$1M

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

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