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 ConocoPhillips (COP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, ConocoPhillips generated $18B of operating cash flow and $15.4B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 85.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did ConocoPhillips (COP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

ConocoPhillips (COP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$18B

Capex

-$2.59B

Free Cash Flow

$15.4B

FCF Margin

+85.6%

Cash flow waterfall for ConocoPhillips (COP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $15.4B

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

Cash flow breakdown for ConocoPhillips (COP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$18B	$18B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.59B	$15.4B
Free Cash Flow	$15.4B	$15.4B
Acquisitions	$1.63B	$17B
Other Investing	-$8.33B	$8.68B
Share Buybacks	-$4.52B	$4.15B
Dividends Paid	-$4.03B	$125M
Net Debt Change	-$480M	-$355M
Other Financing & FX	-$47M	-$402M
Net Cash Decrease	-$402M	-$402M

Operating Cash Flow$18B
Capital Expenditure-$2.59B
Free Cash Flow$15.4B
Acquisitions$1.63B
Other Investing-$8.33B
Share Buybacks-$4.52B
Dividends Paid-$4.03B
Net Debt Change-$480M
Other Financing & FX-$47M
Net Cash Decrease-$402M

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

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