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 Cisco (CSCO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Cisco generated $13B of operating cash flow and $12.6B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 96.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Cisco (CSCO) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Cisco (CSCO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$13B

Capex

-$409M

Free Cash Flow

$12.6B

FCF Margin

+96.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Cisco (CSCO) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $12.6B

Cash flow breakdown for Cisco (CSCO) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$13B	$13B
Capital Expenditure	-$409M	$12.6B
Free Cash Flow	$12.6B	$12.6B
Other Investing	-$3.08B	$9.53B
Share Buybacks	-$6.93B	$2.6B
Dividends Paid	-$6.43B	-$3.83B
Net Debt Change	-$3.41B	-$7.24B
Other Financing & FX	$5.41B	-$1.84B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.84B	-$1.84B

Operating Cash Flow$13B
Capital Expenditure-$409M
Free Cash Flow$12.6B
Other Investing-$3.08B
Share Buybacks-$6.93B
Dividends Paid-$6.43B
Net Debt Change-$3.41B
Other Financing & FX$5.41B
Net Cash Decrease-$1.84B

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

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