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 Carvana (CVNA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Carvana generated $911M of operating cash flow and $740M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 81.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Carvana (CVNA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Carvana (CVNA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$911M

Capex

-$171M

Free Cash Flow

$740M

FCF Margin

+81.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Carvana (CVNA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $740M

Cash flow breakdown for Carvana (CVNA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$911M	$911M
Capital Expenditure	-$171M	$740M
Free Cash Flow	$740M	$740M
Acquisitions	-$147M	$593M
Other Investing	$92M	$685M
Net Debt Change	-$581M	$104M
Other Financing & FX	$504M	$608M
Net Cash Increase	$608M	$608M

Operating Cash Flow$911M
Capital Expenditure-$171M
Free Cash Flow$740M
Acquisitions-$147M
Other Investing$92M
Net Debt Change-$581M
Other Financing & FX$504M
Net Cash Increase$608M

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

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