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 California Water Service Group (CWT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, California Water Service Group generated $314M of operating cash flow and -$223M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -71.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did California Water Service Group (CWT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

California Water Service Group (CWT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$314M

Capex

-$536M

Free Cash Flow

-$223M

FCF Margin

-71.1%

Cash flow waterfall for California Water Service Group (CWT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$223M

Cash flow breakdown for California Water Service Group (CWT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$314M	$314M
Capital Expenditure	-$536M	-$223M
Free Cash Flow	-$223M	-$223M
Other Investing	-$3.36M	-$226M
Dividends Paid	-$73.6M	-$300M
Net Debt Change	$242M	-$57.5M
Other Financing & FX	$71.1M	$13.6M
Net Cash Increase	$13.6M	$13.6M

Operating Cash Flow$314M
Capital Expenditure-$536M
Free Cash Flow-$223M
Other Investing-$3.36M
Dividends Paid-$73.6M
Net Debt Change$242M
Other Financing & FX$71.1M
Net Cash Increase$13.6M

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

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