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 Avery Dennison (AVY) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Avery Dennison generated $1.03B of operating cash flow and $873M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 84.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Avery Dennison (AVY) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Avery Dennison (AVY) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.03B

Capex

-$161M

Free Cash Flow

$873M

FCF Margin

+84.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Avery Dennison (AVY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $873M

Cash flow breakdown for Avery Dennison (AVY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.03B	$1.03B
Capital Expenditure	-$161M	$873M
Free Cash Flow	$873M	$873M
Acquisitions	-$393M	$480M
Other Investing	-$41.3M	$439M
Share Buybacks	-$371M	$67.5M
Dividends Paid	-$291M	-$224M
Net Debt Change	$260M	$35.8M
Other Financing & FX	$31.7M	$67.5M
Net Cash Increase	$67.5M	$67.5M

Operating Cash Flow$1.03B
Capital Expenditure-$161M
Free Cash Flow$873M
Acquisitions-$393M
Other Investing-$41.3M
Share Buybacks-$371M
Dividends Paid-$291M
Net Debt Change$260M
Other Financing & FX$31.7M
Net Cash Increase$67.5M

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

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