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 Carlisle Companies (CSL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Carlisle Companies generated $1.06B of operating cash flow and $925M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 87.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Carlisle Companies (CSL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Carlisle Companies (CSL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.06B

Capex

-$131M

Free Cash Flow

$925M

FCF Margin

+87.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Carlisle Companies (CSL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $925M

Cash flow breakdown for Carlisle Companies (CSL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.06B	$1.06B
Capital Expenditure	-$131M	$925M
Free Cash Flow	$925M	$925M
Acquisitions	-$59.7M	$865M
Other Investing	$700K	$866M
Share Buybacks	-$1.15B	-$284M
Dividends Paid	-$182M	-$466M
Net Debt Change	$988M	$522M
Other Financing & FX	$30.9M	$553M
Net Cash Increase	$551M	$551M

Operating Cash Flow$1.06B
Capital Expenditure-$131M
Free Cash Flow$925M
Acquisitions-$59.7M
Other Investing$700K
Share Buybacks-$1.15B
Dividends Paid-$182M
Net Debt Change$988M
Other Financing & FX$30.9M
Net Cash Increase$551M

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

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