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 Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Commerce Bancshares generated $1.19B of operating cash flow and $1.12B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.19B

Capex

-$68.6M

Free Cash Flow

$1.12B

FCF Margin

+94.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.12B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Commerce Bancshares (CBSH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.19B	$1.19B
Capital Expenditure	-$68.6M	$1.12B
Free Cash Flow	$1.12B	$1.12B
Other Investing	$839M	$1.96B
Share Buybacks	-$237M	$1.72B
Dividends Paid	-$154M	$1.57B
Net Debt Change	-$705M	$866M
Other Financing & FX	-$297M	$569M
Net Cash Increase	$569M	$569M

Operating Cash Flow$1.19B
Capital Expenditure-$68.6M
Free Cash Flow$1.12B
Other Investing$839M
Share Buybacks-$237M
Dividends Paid-$154M
Net Debt Change-$705M
Other Financing & FX-$297M
Net Cash Increase$569M

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

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