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 Boston Scientific (BSX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Boston Scientific generated $4.34B of operating cash flow and $3.44B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 79.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Boston Scientific (BSX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Boston Scientific (BSX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.34B

Capex

-$899M

Free Cash Flow

$3.44B

FCF Margin

+79.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Boston Scientific (BSX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.44B

Cash flow breakdown for Boston Scientific (BSX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.34B	$4.34B
Capital Expenditure	-$899M	$3.44B
Free Cash Flow	$3.44B	$3.44B
Acquisitions	-$1.88B	$1.57B
Other Investing	$45M	$1.61B
Net Debt Change	-$997M	$613M
Other Financing & FX	$90M	$703M
Net Cash Increase	$703M	$703M

Operating Cash Flow$4.34B
Capital Expenditure-$899M
Free Cash Flow$3.44B
Acquisitions-$1.88B
Other Investing$45M
Net Debt Change-$997M
Other Financing & FX$90M
Net Cash Increase$703M

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

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