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 Carnival Corporation (CCL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Carnival Corporation generated $6.79B of operating cash flow and $3.2B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 47.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Carnival Corporation (CCL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Carnival Corporation (CCL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.79B

Capex

-$3.59B

Free Cash Flow

$3.2B

FCF Margin

+47.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Carnival Corporation (CCL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $3.2B

Cash flow breakdown for Carnival Corporation (CCL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.79B	$6.79B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.59B	$3.2B
Free Cash Flow	$3.2B	$3.2B
Other Investing	-$17M	$3.18B
Dividends Paid	-$414M	$2.77B
Net Debt Change	-$1.85B	$919M
Other Financing & FX	-$830M	$89M
Net Cash Increase	$88M	$88M

Operating Cash Flow$6.79B
Capital Expenditure-$3.59B
Free Cash Flow$3.2B
Other Investing-$17M
Dividends Paid-$414M
Net Debt Change-$1.85B
Other Financing & FX-$830M
Net Cash Increase$88M

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

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