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 CrowdStrike (CRWD) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, CrowdStrike generated $1.82B of operating cash flow and $1.45B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 79.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CrowdStrike (CRWD) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

CrowdStrike (CRWD) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.82B

Capex

-$367M

Free Cash Flow

$1.45B

FCF Margin

+79.8%

Cash flow waterfall for CrowdStrike (CRWD) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.45B

Cash flow breakdown for CrowdStrike (CRWD) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.82B	$1.82B
Capital Expenditure	-$367M	$1.45B
Free Cash Flow	$1.45B	$1.45B
Acquisitions	-$1.27B	$184M
Other Investing	-$26M	$158M
Share Buybacks	-$176M	-$17.6M
Other Financing	$115M	$96.9M
Forex Effect	$86.7M	$184M
Net Cash Increase	$185M	$185M

Operating Cash Flow$1.82B
Capital Expenditure-$367M
Free Cash Flow$1.45B
Acquisitions-$1.27B
Other Investing-$26M
Share Buybacks-$176M
Other Financing$115M
Forex Effect$86.7M
Net Cash Increase$185M

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

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