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 Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Brookfield Asset Management generated $2.32B of operating cash flow and $2.32B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.32B

Capex

-$4M

Free Cash Flow

$2.32B

FCF Margin

+99.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.32B

Cash flow breakdown for Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.32B	$2.32B
Capital Expenditure	-$4M	$2.32B
Free Cash Flow	$2.32B	$2.32B
Acquisitions	$156M	$2.47B
Other Investing	-$566M	$1.91B
Share Buybacks	-$672M	$1.23B
Dividends Paid	-$2.92B	-$1.69B
Net Debt Change	$1.99B	$306M
Other Financing & FX	$459M	$765M
Net Cash Increase	$764M	$764M

Operating Cash Flow$2.32B
Capital Expenditure-$4M
Free Cash Flow$2.32B
Acquisitions$156M
Other Investing-$566M
Share Buybacks-$672M
Dividends Paid-$2.92B
Net Debt Change$1.99B
Other Financing & FX$459M
Net Cash Increase$764M

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

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