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 CDW (CDW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, CDW generated $1.19B of operating cash flow and $1.08B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 90.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CDW (CDW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

CDW (CDW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.19B

Capex

-$117M

Free Cash Flow

$1.08B

FCF Margin

+90.2%

Cash flow waterfall for CDW (CDW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.08B

Cash flow breakdown for CDW (CDW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.19B	$1.19B
Capital Expenditure	-$117M	$1.08B
Free Cash Flow	$1.08B	$1.08B
Other Investing	$188M	$1.26B
Share Buybacks	-$654M	$610M
Dividends Paid	-$327M	$283M
Net Debt Change	-$276M	$7.6M
Other Financing & FX	$95.6M	$103M
Net Cash Increase	$103M	$103M

Operating Cash Flow$1.19B
Capital Expenditure-$117M
Free Cash Flow$1.08B
Other Investing$188M
Share Buybacks-$654M
Dividends Paid-$327M
Net Debt Change-$276M
Other Financing & FX$95.6M
Net Cash Increase$103M

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

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