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 Capital One Financial (COF) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Capital One Financial generated $29.1B of operating cash flow and $28.9B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Capital One Financial (COF) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Capital One Financial (COF) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$29.1B

Capex

-$205M

Free Cash Flow

$28.9B

FCF Margin

+99.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Capital One Financial (COF) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $28.9B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Capital One Financial (COF) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$29.1B	$29.1B
Capital Expenditure	-$205M	$28.9B
Free Cash Flow	$28.9B	$28.9B
Acquisitions	$16.5B	$45.3B
Other Investing	-$17.5B	$27.8B
Share Buybacks	-$2.42B	$25.4B
Net Debt Change	$5.37B	$30.8B
Other Financing & FX	-$471M	$30.3B
Net Cash Increase	$30.3B	$30.3B

Operating Cash Flow$29.1B
Capital Expenditure-$205M
Free Cash Flow$28.9B
Acquisitions$16.5B
Other Investing-$17.5B
Share Buybacks-$2.42B
Net Debt Change$5.37B
Other Financing & FX-$471M
Net Cash Increase$30.3B

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

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