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 AutoZone (AZO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, AutoZone generated $3.07B of operating cash flow and $1.63B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 53.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did AutoZone (AZO) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent AutoZone's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

AutoZone (AZO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.07B

Capex

-$1.44B

Free Cash Flow

$1.63B

FCF Margin

+53.2%

Cash flow waterfall for AutoZone (AZO) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.63B

Cash flow breakdown for AutoZone (AZO) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.07B	$3.07B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.44B	$1.63B
Free Cash Flow	$1.63B	$1.63B
Other Investing	-$57.1M	$1.58B
Share Buybacks	-$1.77B	-$189M
Net Debt Change	$76.3M	-$113M
Other Financing & FX	$98M	-$14.9M
Net Cash Decrease	-$14.9M	-$14.9M

Operating Cash Flow$3.07B
Capital Expenditure-$1.44B
Free Cash Flow$1.63B
Other Investing-$57.1M
Share Buybacks-$1.77B
Net Debt Change$76.3M
Other Financing & FX$98M
Net Cash Decrease-$14.9M

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

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