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 AstraZeneca (AZN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, AstraZeneca generated $14.3B of operating cash flow and $8.07B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 56.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did AstraZeneca (AZN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

AstraZeneca (AZN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$14.3B

Capex

-$6.24B

Free Cash Flow

$8.07B

FCF Margin

+56.4%

Cash flow waterfall for AstraZeneca (AZN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $8.07B

Cash flow breakdown for AstraZeneca (AZN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$14.3B	$14.3B
Capital Expenditure	-$6.24B	$8.07B
Free Cash Flow	$8.07B	$8.07B
Acquisitions	-$1.14B	$6.92B
Other Investing	-$36.9M	$6.89B
Dividends Paid	-$4.89B	$2B
Net Debt Change	$1.38B	$3.38B
Other Financing & FX	-$1.1B	$2.28B
Net Cash Increase	$2.28B	$2.28B

Operating Cash Flow$14.3B
Capital Expenditure-$6.24B
Free Cash Flow$8.07B
Acquisitions-$1.14B
Other Investing-$36.9M
Dividends Paid-$4.89B
Net Debt Change$1.38B
Other Financing & FX-$1.1B
Net Cash Increase$2.28B

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

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