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 Crown Castle (CCI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Crown Castle generated $2.09B of operating cash flow and $1.93B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Crown Castle (CCI) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Crown Castle's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Crown Castle (CCI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.09B

Capex

-$159M

Free Cash Flow

$1.93B

FCF Margin

+92.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Crown Castle (CCI) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.93B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Crown Castle (CCI) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.09B	$2.09B
Capital Expenditure	-$159M	$1.93B
Free Cash Flow	$1.93B	$1.93B
Other Investing	-$789M	$1.15B
Dividends Paid	-$1.4B	-$255M
Net Debt Change	$936M	$681M
Other Financing & FX	-$647M	$34M
Net Cash Increase	$34M	$34M

Operating Cash Flow$2.09B
Capital Expenditure-$159M
Free Cash Flow$1.93B
Other Investing-$789M
Dividends Paid-$1.4B
Net Debt Change$936M
Other Financing & FX-$647M
Net Cash Increase$34M

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

Frequently asked questions

Data & methodology

Crown Castle (CCI) Key Financials

Charts, filings, and peer comparison for every metric

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin47.7%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees4.0K

Explore more

Deep-dives across the income statement, cash flow, capital return, and valuation

Overview

CCI Overview

Counters