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 Dollar Tree (DLTR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Dollar Tree generated $2.7B of operating cash flow and $1.56B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 57.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Dollar Tree (DLTR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Dollar Tree (DLTR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.7B

Capex

-$1.14B

Free Cash Flow

$1.56B

FCF Margin

+57.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Dollar Tree (DLTR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.56B

Cash flow breakdown for Dollar Tree (DLTR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.7B	$2.7B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.14B	$1.56B
Free Cash Flow	$1.56B	$1.56B
Other Investing	$400M	$1.96B
Share Buybacks	-$1.71B	$252M
Net Debt Change	$201M	$453M
Other Financing & FX	-$714M	-$261M
Net Cash Decrease	-$261M	-$261M

Operating Cash Flow$2.7B
Capital Expenditure-$1.14B
Free Cash Flow$1.56B
Other Investing$400M
Share Buybacks-$1.71B
Net Debt Change$201M
Other Financing & FX-$714M
Net Cash Decrease-$261M

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

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