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 CMS Energy (CMS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, CMS Energy generated $1.94B of operating cash flow and -$2.04B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -104.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CMS Energy (CMS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

CMS Energy (CMS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.94B

Capex

-$3.98B

Free Cash Flow

-$2.04B

FCF Margin

-104.9%

Cash flow waterfall for CMS Energy (CMS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$2.04B

Cash flow breakdown for CMS Energy (CMS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.94B	$1.94B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.98B	-$2.04B
Free Cash Flow	-$2.04B	-$2.04B
Acquisitions	-$120M	-$2.16B
Other Investing	-$94M	-$2.25B
Dividends Paid	-$675M	-$2.92B
Net Debt Change	$2.03B	-$894M
Other Financing & FX	$631M	-$263M
Net Cash Decrease	-$263M	-$263M

Operating Cash Flow$1.94B
Capital Expenditure-$3.98B
Free Cash Flow-$2.04B
Acquisitions-$120M
Other Investing-$94M
Dividends Paid-$675M
Net Debt Change$2.03B
Other Financing & FX$631M
Net Cash Decrease-$263M

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

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