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 Coherent (COHR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Coherent generated $140M of operating cash flow and -$538M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -383.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Coherent (COHR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Coherent (COHR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$140M

Capex

-$679M

Free Cash Flow

-$538M

FCF Margin

-383.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Coherent (COHR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$538M

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

Cash flow breakdown for Coherent (COHR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$140M	$140M
Capital Expenditure	-$679M	-$538M
Free Cash Flow	-$538M	-$538M
Acquisitions	$425M	-$113M
Other Investing	-$768M	-$881M
Share Buybacks	$4.32M	-$877M
Dividends Paid	-$34.3M	-$911M
Net Debt Change	-$555M	-$1.47B
Other Financing	$2B	$529M
Forex Effect	$70.6M	$600M
Net Cash Increase	$600M	$600M

Operating Cash Flow$140M
Capital Expenditure-$679M
Free Cash Flow-$538M
Acquisitions$425M
Other Investing-$768M
Share Buybacks$4.32M
Dividends Paid-$34.3M
Net Debt Change-$555M
Other Financing$2B
Forex Effect$70.6M
Net Cash Increase$600M

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

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