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 Ciena (CIEN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Ciena generated $1.03B of operating cash flow and $833M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 80.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ciena (CIEN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ciena (CIEN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.03B

Capex

-$200M

Free Cash Flow

$833M

FCF Margin

+80.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Ciena (CIEN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $833M

Cash flow breakdown for Ciena (CIEN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.03B	$1.03B
Capital Expenditure	-$200M	$833M
Free Cash Flow	$833M	$833M
Acquisitions	-$231M	$602M
Other Investing	$40.4M	$642M
Share Buybacks	-$365M	$277M
Other Financing & FX	-$345M	-$68.1M
Net Cash Decrease	-$68.3M	-$68.3M

Operating Cash Flow$1.03B
Capital Expenditure-$200M
Free Cash Flow$833M
Acquisitions-$231M
Other Investing$40.4M
Share Buybacks-$365M
Other Financing & FX-$345M
Net Cash Decrease-$68.3M

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

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