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 CBRE Group (CBRE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, CBRE Group generated $1.28B of operating cash flow and $897M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 70.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CBRE Group (CBRE) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

CBRE Group (CBRE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.28B

Capex

-$383M

Free Cash Flow

$897M

FCF Margin

+70.1%

Cash flow waterfall for CBRE Group (CBRE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $897M

Cash flow breakdown for CBRE Group (CBRE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.28B	$1.28B
Capital Expenditure	-$383M	$897M
Free Cash Flow	$897M	$897M
Acquisitions	-$1.07B	-$174M
Other Investing	$353M	$179M
Share Buybacks	-$400M	-$221M
Net Debt Change	$2.78B	$2.56B
Other Financing	-$620M	$1.94B
Forex Effect	-$1.65B	$282M
Net Cash Increase	$282M	$282M

Operating Cash Flow$1.28B
Capital Expenditure-$383M
Free Cash Flow$897M
Acquisitions-$1.07B
Other Investing$353M
Share Buybacks-$400M
Net Debt Change$2.78B
Other Financing-$620M
Forex Effect-$1.65B
Net Cash Increase$282M

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

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CBRE Group (CBRE) Key Financials

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Income Statement

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Profitability

Operating Margin3.8%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees155.0K

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