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 Danaher (DHR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Danaher generated $6.64B of operating cash flow and $5.47B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 82.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Danaher (DHR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Danaher (DHR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.64B

Capex

-$1.17B

Free Cash Flow

$5.47B

FCF Margin

+82.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Danaher (DHR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $5.47B

Cash flow breakdown for Danaher (DHR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.64B	$6.64B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.17B	$5.47B
Free Cash Flow	$5.47B	$5.47B
Acquisitions	-$9.84B	-$4.38B
Other Investing	-$80M	-$4.46B
Share Buybacks	-$2.9B	-$7.36B
Dividends Paid	-$964M	-$8.33B
Net Debt Change	$8.79B	$466M
Other Financing	$937M	$1.4B
Forex Effect	$645M	$2.05B
Net Cash Increase	$2.05B	$2.05B

Operating Cash Flow$6.64B
Capital Expenditure-$1.17B
Free Cash Flow$5.47B
Acquisitions-$9.84B
Other Investing-$80M
Share Buybacks-$2.9B
Dividends Paid-$964M
Net Debt Change$8.79B
Other Financing$937M
Forex Effect$645M
Net Cash Increase$2.05B

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

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