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 Celestica (CLS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Celestica generated $888M of operating cash flow and $493M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 55.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Celestica (CLS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Celestica (CLS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$888M

Capex

-$395M

Free Cash Flow

$493M

FCF Margin

+55.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Celestica (CLS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $493M

Cash flow breakdown for Celestica (CLS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$888M	$888M
Capital Expenditure	-$395M	$493M
Free Cash Flow	$493M	$493M
Other Investing	$8.62M	$501M
Share Buybacks	-$96.1M	$405M
Net Debt Change	-$174M	$231M
Other Financing & FX	-$158M	$73.2M
Net Cash Increase	$74M	$74M

Operating Cash Flow$888M
Capital Expenditure-$395M
Free Cash Flow$493M
Other Investing$8.62M
Share Buybacks-$96.1M
Net Debt Change-$174M
Other Financing & FX-$158M
Net Cash Increase$74M

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

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