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 Caterpillar (CAT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Caterpillar generated $12.3B of operating cash flow and $11.5B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Caterpillar (CAT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Caterpillar (CAT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$12.3B

Capex

-$870M

Free Cash Flow

$11.5B

FCF Margin

+92.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Caterpillar (CAT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $11.5B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Caterpillar (CAT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$12.3B	$12.3B
Capital Expenditure	-$870M	$11.5B
Free Cash Flow	$11.5B	$11.5B
Acquisitions	-$847M	$10.6B
Other Investing	-$4.59B	$6.01B
Share Buybacks	-$6.49B	-$481M
Dividends Paid	-$2.78B	-$3.26B
Other Financing & FX	$3.77B	$508M
Net Cash Increase	$514M	$514M

Operating Cash Flow$12.3B
Capital Expenditure-$870M
Free Cash Flow$11.5B
Acquisitions-$847M
Other Investing-$4.59B
Share Buybacks-$6.49B
Dividends Paid-$2.78B
Other Financing & FX$3.77B
Net Cash Increase$514M

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

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