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 Cardinal Health (CAH) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Cardinal Health generated $5.01B of operating cash flow and $4.39B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 87.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Cardinal Health (CAH) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Cardinal Health (CAH) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.01B

Capex

-$617M

Free Cash Flow

$4.39B

FCF Margin

+87.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Cardinal Health (CAH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.39B

Cash flow breakdown for Cardinal Health (CAH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.01B	$5.01B
Capital Expenditure	-$617M	$4.39B
Free Cash Flow	$4.39B	$4.39B
Acquisitions	-$3.36B	$1.03B
Other Investing	$35M	$1.06B
Share Buybacks	-$243M	$820M
Dividends Paid	-$491M	$329M
Net Debt Change	$1.14B	$1.47B
Other Financing & FX	-$861M	$611M
Net Cash Increase	$611M	$611M

Operating Cash Flow$5.01B
Capital Expenditure-$617M
Free Cash Flow$4.39B
Acquisitions-$3.36B
Other Investing$35M
Share Buybacks-$243M
Dividends Paid-$491M
Net Debt Change$1.14B
Other Financing & FX-$861M
Net Cash Increase$611M

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

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