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 Boeing (BA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Boeing generated $2.5B of operating cash flow and -$1.04B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -41.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Boeing (BA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Boeing (BA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.5B

Capex

-$3.54B

Free Cash Flow

-$1.04B

FCF Margin

-41.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Boeing (BA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$1.04B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Boeing (BA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.5B	$2.5B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.54B	-$1.04B
Free Cash Flow	-$1.04B	-$1.04B
Acquisitions	-$1.17B	-$2.21B
Other Investing	$12.6B	$10.4B
Share Buybacks	-$45M	$10.4B
Dividends Paid	-$345M	$10B
Net Debt Change	-$10.1B	-$77M
Other Financing & FX	$82M	$5M
Net Cash Increase	$5M	$5M

Operating Cash Flow$2.5B
Capital Expenditure-$3.54B
Free Cash Flow-$1.04B
Acquisitions-$1.17B
Other Investing$12.6B
Share Buybacks-$45M
Dividends Paid-$345M
Net Debt Change-$10.1B
Other Financing & FX$82M
Net Cash Increase$5M

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

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