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 Blackstone (BX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Blackstone generated $3.47B of operating cash flow and $3.35B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 96.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Blackstone (BX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Blackstone (BX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.47B

Capex

-$120M

Free Cash Flow

$3.35B

FCF Margin

+96.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Blackstone (BX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.35B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Blackstone (BX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.47B	$3.47B
Capital Expenditure	-$120M	$3.35B
Free Cash Flow	$3.35B	$3.35B
Other Investing	$1.26B	$4.61B
Share Buybacks	-$279M	$4.33B
Dividends Paid	-$6.07B	-$1.74B
Net Debt Change	$889M	-$849M
Other Financing & FX	$160M	-$689M
Net Cash Decrease	-$689M	-$689M

Operating Cash Flow$3.47B
Capital Expenditure-$120M
Free Cash Flow$3.35B
Other Investing$1.26B
Share Buybacks-$279M
Dividends Paid-$6.07B
Net Debt Change$889M
Other Financing & FX$160M
Net Cash Decrease-$689M

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

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