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 CoStar Group (CSGP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, CoStar Group generated $529M of operating cash flow and $241M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 45.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CoStar Group (CSGP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

CoStar Group (CSGP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$529M

Capex

-$288M

Free Cash Flow

$241M

FCF Margin

+45.6%

Cash flow waterfall for CoStar Group (CSGP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $241M

Cash flow breakdown for CoStar Group (CSGP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$529M	$529M
Capital Expenditure	-$288M	$241M
Free Cash Flow	$241M	$241M
Acquisitions	-$1.6B	-$1.36B
Other Investing	-$75M	-$1.43B
Share Buybacks	-$870M	-$2.3B
Other Financing & FX	-$162M	-$2.46B
Net Cash Decrease	-$2.46B	-$2.46B

Operating Cash Flow$529M
Capital Expenditure-$288M
Free Cash Flow$241M
Acquisitions-$1.6B
Other Investing-$75M
Share Buybacks-$870M
Other Financing & FX-$162M
Net Cash Decrease-$2.46B

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

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CoStar Group (CSGP) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin-0.8%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees6.6K

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