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 American Express (AXP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, American Express generated $17.5B of operating cash flow and $14.3B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 82% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did American Express (AXP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

American Express (AXP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$17.5B

Capex

-$3.14B

Free Cash Flow

$14.3B

FCF Margin

+82.0%

Cash flow waterfall for American Express (AXP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $14.3B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for American Express (AXP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$17.5B	$17.5B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.14B	$14.3B
Free Cash Flow	$14.3B	$14.3B
Acquisitions	-$498M	$13.8B
Other Investing	-$22.6B	-$8.75B
Share Buybacks	-$6.52B	-$15.3B
Dividends Paid	-$2.35B	-$17.6B
Net Debt Change	$8.41B	-$9.2B
Other Financing	$9.99B	$797M
Forex Effect	$452M	$1.25B
Net Cash Increase	$1.25B	$1.25B

Operating Cash Flow$17.5B
Capital Expenditure-$3.14B
Free Cash Flow$14.3B
Acquisitions-$498M
Other Investing-$22.6B
Share Buybacks-$6.52B
Dividends Paid-$2.35B
Net Debt Change$8.41B
Other Financing$9.99B
Forex Effect$452M
Net Cash Increase$1.25B

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

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