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 Biogen (BIIB) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Biogen generated $2.59B of operating cash flow and $2.62B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 101.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Biogen (BIIB) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Biogen (BIIB) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.59B

Capex

$32.3M

Free Cash Flow

$2.62B

FCF Margin

+101.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Biogen (BIIB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.62B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Biogen (BIIB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.59B	$2.59B
Capital Expenditure	$32.3M	$2.62B
Free Cash Flow	$2.62B	$2.62B
Other Investing	-$1.57B	$1.06B
Other Financing	-$323M	$735M
Forex Effect	$49.6M	$785M
Net Cash Increase	$782M	$782M

Operating Cash Flow$2.59B
Capital Expenditure$32.3M
Free Cash Flow$2.62B
Other Investing-$1.57B
Other Financing-$323M
Forex Effect$49.6M
Net Cash Increase$782M

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

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