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 Bank of America (BAC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Bank of America generated $56.6B of operating cash flow and $56.6B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 100% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Bank of America (BAC) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Bank of America (BAC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$56.6B

Capex

$0.00

Free Cash Flow

$56.6B

FCF Margin

+100.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Bank of America (BAC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $56.6B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Bank of America (BAC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$56.6B	$56.6B
Capital Expenditure	$0.00	$56.6B
Free Cash Flow	$56.6B	$56.6B
Other Investing	-$123B	-$66B
Share Buybacks	-$24.2B	-$90.2B
Dividends Paid	-$9.64B	-$99.8B
Net Debt Change	$42.7B	-$57.1B
Other Financing	$24.1B	-$33B
Forex Effect	$1.9B	-$31.1B
Net Cash Decrease	-$31.1B	-$31.1B

Operating Cash Flow$56.6B
Capital Expenditure$0.00
Free Cash Flow$56.6B
Other Investing-$123B
Share Buybacks-$24.2B
Dividends Paid-$9.64B
Net Debt Change$42.7B
Other Financing$24.1B
Forex Effect$1.9B
Net Cash Decrease-$31.1B

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

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