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 CSX (CSX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, CSX generated $5.32B of operating cash flow and $6.14B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 115.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did CSX (CSX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

CSX (CSX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.32B

Capex

$818M

Free Cash Flow

$6.14B

FCF Margin

+115.4%

Cash flow waterfall for CSX (CSX) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $6.14B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for CSX (CSX) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.32B	$5.32B
Capital Expenditure	$818M	$6.14B
Free Cash Flow	$6.14B	$6.14B
Other Investing	-$3.54B	$2.6B
Share Buybacks	-$224M	$2.38B
Dividends Paid	-$1B	$1.38B
Net Debt Change	-$312M	$1.06B
Other Financing & FX	-$444M	$620M
Net Cash Increase	$620M	$620M

Operating Cash Flow$5.32B
Capital Expenditure$818M
Free Cash Flow$6.14B
Other Investing-$3.54B
Share Buybacks-$224M
Dividends Paid-$1B
Net Debt Change-$312M
Other Financing & FX-$444M
Net Cash Increase$620M

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

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