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 Cintas (CTAS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Cintas generated $2.28B of operating cash flow and $1.88B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 82.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Cintas (CTAS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Cintas (CTAS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.28B

Capex

-$395M

Free Cash Flow

$1.88B

FCF Margin

+82.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Cintas (CTAS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.88B

Cash flow breakdown for Cintas (CTAS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.28B	$2.28B
Capital Expenditure	-$395M	$1.88B
Free Cash Flow	$1.88B	$1.88B
Acquisitions	-$165M	$1.72B
Other Investing	-$8.78M	$1.71B
Share Buybacks	-$952M	$756M
Dividends Paid	-$701M	$54.3M
Other Financing & FX	-$29.2M	$25M
Net Cash Increase	$25M	$25M

Operating Cash Flow$2.28B
Capital Expenditure-$395M
Free Cash Flow$1.88B
Acquisitions-$165M
Other Investing-$8.78M
Share Buybacks-$952M
Dividends Paid-$701M
Other Financing & FX-$29.2M
Net Cash Increase$25M

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

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