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 Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Cboe Global Markets generated $1.05B of operating cash flow and $975M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.05B

Capex

-$75.5M

Free Cash Flow

$975M

FCF Margin

+92.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $975M

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

Cash flow breakdown for Cboe Global Markets (CBOE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.05B	$1.05B
Capital Expenditure	-$75.5M	$975M
Free Cash Flow	$975M	$975M
Other Investing	$528M	$1.5B
Share Buybacks	-$83.8M	$1.42B
Dividends Paid	-$294M	$1.13B
Other Financing	-$19.8M	$1.11B
Forex Effect	-$1.22B	-$112M
Net Cash Decrease	-$112M	-$112M

Operating Cash Flow$1.05B
Capital Expenditure-$75.5M
Free Cash Flow$975M
Other Investing$528M
Share Buybacks-$83.8M
Dividends Paid-$294M
Other Financing-$19.8M
Forex Effect-$1.22B
Net Cash Decrease-$112M

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

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