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 Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Cadence Design Systems generated $1.6B of operating cash flow and $1.43B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 89.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.6B

Capex

-$168M

Free Cash Flow

$1.43B

FCF Margin

+89.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.43B

Cash flow breakdown for Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.6B	$1.6B
Capital Expenditure	-$168M	$1.43B
Free Cash Flow	$1.43B	$1.43B
Acquisitions	-$2.5B	-$1.07B
Other Investing	$121M	-$953M
Share Buybacks	-$775M	-$1.73B
Net Debt Change	$425M	-$1.3B
Other Financing & FX	-$67.8M	-$1.37B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.37B	-$1.37B

Operating Cash Flow$1.6B
Capital Expenditure-$168M
Free Cash Flow$1.43B
Acquisitions-$2.5B
Other Investing$121M
Share Buybacks-$775M
Net Debt Change$425M
Other Financing & FX-$67.8M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.37B

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

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