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 Costco (COST) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Costco generated $15B of operating cash flow and $8.81B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 58.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Costco (COST) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Costco's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Costco (COST) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$15B

Capex

-$6.19B

Free Cash Flow

$8.81B

FCF Margin

+58.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Costco (COST) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $8.81B

Cash flow breakdown for Costco (COST) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$15B	$15B
Capital Expenditure	-$6.19B	$8.81B
Free Cash Flow	$8.81B	$8.81B
Other Investing	$66M	$8.87B
Share Buybacks	-$883M	$7.99B
Dividends Paid	-$2.31B	$5.68B
Other Financing & FX	-$572M	$5.11B
Net Cash Increase	$5.11B	$5.11B

Operating Cash Flow$15B
Capital Expenditure-$6.19B
Free Cash Flow$8.81B
Other Investing$66M
Share Buybacks-$883M
Dividends Paid-$2.31B
Other Financing & FX-$572M
Net Cash Increase$5.11B

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

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