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 BlackRock (BLK) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, BlackRock generated $3.97B of operating cash flow and $3.56B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 89.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did BlackRock (BLK) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

BlackRock (BLK) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.97B

Capex

-$403M

Free Cash Flow

$3.56B

FCF Margin

+89.8%

Cash flow waterfall for BlackRock (BLK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.56B

Cash flow breakdown for BlackRock (BLK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.97B	$3.97B
Capital Expenditure	-$403M	$3.56B
Free Cash Flow	$3.56B	$3.56B
Acquisitions	-$388M	$3.18B
Other Investing	-$463M	$2.71B
Share Buybacks	-$2.1B	$609M
Dividends Paid	-$3.48B	-$2.87B
Net Debt Change	$389M	-$2.48B
Other Financing	$4.43B	$1.94B
Forex Effect	$156M	$2.1B
Net Cash Increase	$2.1B	$2.1B

Operating Cash Flow$3.97B
Capital Expenditure-$403M
Free Cash Flow$3.56B
Acquisitions-$388M
Other Investing-$463M
Share Buybacks-$2.1B
Dividends Paid-$3.48B
Net Debt Change$389M
Other Financing$4.43B
Forex Effect$156M
Net Cash Increase$2.1B

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

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