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 Franklin Resources (BEN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Franklin Resources generated $970M of operating cash flow and $930M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 95.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Franklin Resources (BEN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Franklin Resources (BEN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$970M

Capex

-$40.7M

Free Cash Flow

$930M

FCF Margin

+95.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Franklin Resources (BEN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $930M

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

Cash flow breakdown for Franklin Resources (BEN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$970M	$970M
Capital Expenditure	-$40.7M	$930M
Free Cash Flow	$930M	$930M
Acquisitions	-$69.7M	$860M
Other Investing	-$2.4B	-$1.54B
Share Buybacks	-$283M	-$1.82B
Dividends Paid	-$685M	-$2.51B
Net Debt Change	$2.07B	-$432M
Other Financing & FX	$461M	$29.9M
Net Cash Increase	$29.9M	$29.9M

Operating Cash Flow$970M
Capital Expenditure-$40.7M
Free Cash Flow$930M
Acquisitions-$69.7M
Other Investing-$2.4B
Share Buybacks-$283M
Dividends Paid-$685M
Net Debt Change$2.07B
Other Financing & FX$461M
Net Cash Increase$29.9M

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

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