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 Cummins (CMI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Cummins generated $3.93B of operating cash flow and $2.67B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 67.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Cummins (CMI) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Cummins (CMI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.93B

Capex

-$1.26B

Free Cash Flow

$2.67B

FCF Margin

+67.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Cummins (CMI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.67B

Cash flow breakdown for Cummins (CMI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.93B	$3.93B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.26B	$2.67B
Free Cash Flow	$2.67B	$2.67B
Acquisitions	-$110M	$2.56B
Other Investing	-$233M	$2.33B
Share Buybacks	-$243M	$2.09B
Dividends Paid	-$1.08B	$1.01B
Net Debt Change	$166M	$1.17B
Other Financing & FX	-$89M	$1.08B
Net Cash Increase	$1.08B	$1.08B

Operating Cash Flow$3.93B
Capital Expenditure-$1.26B
Free Cash Flow$2.67B
Acquisitions-$110M
Other Investing-$233M
Share Buybacks-$243M
Dividends Paid-$1.08B
Net Debt Change$166M
Other Financing & FX-$89M
Net Cash Increase$1.08B

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

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