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 Colgate-Palmolive (CL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Colgate-Palmolive generated $4.35B of operating cash flow and $3.77B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 86.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Colgate-Palmolive (CL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Colgate-Palmolive (CL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.35B

Capex

-$578M

Free Cash Flow

$3.77B

FCF Margin

+86.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Colgate-Palmolive (CL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.77B

Cash flow breakdown for Colgate-Palmolive (CL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.35B	$4.35B
Capital Expenditure	-$578M	$3.77B
Free Cash Flow	$3.77B	$3.77B
Acquisitions	-$293M	$3.47B
Other Investing	$91M	$3.57B
Share Buybacks	-$1.23B	$2.33B
Dividends Paid	-$1.83B	$499M
Net Debt Change	-$560M	-$61M
Other Financing & FX	$284M	$223M
Net Cash Increase	$223M	$223M

Operating Cash Flow$4.35B
Capital Expenditure-$578M
Free Cash Flow$3.77B
Acquisitions-$293M
Other Investing$91M
Share Buybacks-$1.23B
Dividends Paid-$1.83B
Net Debt Change-$560M
Other Financing & FX$284M
Net Cash Increase$223M

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

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