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 Brown & Brown (BRO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Brown & Brown generated $1.5B of operating cash flow and $1.48B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 98.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Brown & Brown (BRO) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Brown & Brown (BRO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.5B

Capex

-$24M

Free Cash Flow

$1.48B

FCF Margin

+98.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Brown & Brown (BRO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.48B

Cash flow breakdown for Brown & Brown (BRO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.5B	$1.5B
Capital Expenditure	-$24M	$1.48B
Free Cash Flow	$1.48B	$1.48B
Acquisitions	-$7.81B	-$6.33B
Other Investing	-$44M	-$6.37B
Share Buybacks	-$336M	-$6.71B
Dividends Paid	-$208M	-$6.92B
Net Debt Change	$8.32B	$1.4B
Other Financing & FX	-$185M	$1.22B
Net Cash Increase	$1.22B	$1.22B

Operating Cash Flow$1.5B
Capital Expenditure-$24M
Free Cash Flow$1.48B
Acquisitions-$7.81B
Other Investing-$44M
Share Buybacks-$336M
Dividends Paid-$208M
Net Debt Change$8.32B
Other Financing & FX-$185M
Net Cash Increase$1.22B

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

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