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 Avient (AVNT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Avient generated $318M of operating cash flow and $205M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 64.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Avient (AVNT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Avient (AVNT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$318M

Capex

-$113M

Free Cash Flow

$205M

FCF Margin

+64.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Avient (AVNT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $205M

Cash flow breakdown for Avient (AVNT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$318M	$318M
Capital Expenditure	-$113M	$205M
Free Cash Flow	$205M	$205M
Other Investing	$9.6M	$215M
Dividends Paid	-$99.3M	$115M
Net Debt Change	-$150M	-$34.9M
Other Financing	-$7M	-$41.9M
Forex Effect	$13.5M	-$28.4M
Net Cash Decrease	-$28.4M	-$28.4M

Operating Cash Flow$318M
Capital Expenditure-$113M
Free Cash Flow$205M
Other Investing$9.6M
Dividends Paid-$99.3M
Net Debt Change-$150M
Other Financing-$7M
Forex Effect$13.5M
Net Cash Decrease-$28.4M

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

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