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 Ball (BALL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ball generated $1.15B of operating cash flow and $596M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 51.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ball (BALL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ball (BALL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.15B

Capex

-$554M

Free Cash Flow

$596M

FCF Margin

+51.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Ball (BALL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $596M

Cash flow breakdown for Ball (BALL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.15B	$1.15B
Capital Expenditure	-$554M	$596M
Free Cash Flow	$596M	$596M
Acquisitions	-$50M	$546M
Other Investing	-$151M	$395M
Share Buybacks	-$767M	-$372M
Dividends Paid	-$217M	-$589M
Net Debt Change	$871M	$282M
Other Financing	-$22M	$260M
Forex Effect	$29M	$289M
Net Cash Increase	$289M	$289M

Operating Cash Flow$1.15B
Capital Expenditure-$554M
Free Cash Flow$596M
Acquisitions-$50M
Other Investing-$151M
Share Buybacks-$767M
Dividends Paid-$217M
Net Debt Change$871M
Other Financing-$22M
Forex Effect$29M
Net Cash Increase$289M

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

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