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 Dow (DOW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Dow generated $2.81B of operating cash flow and -$1.4B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -49.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Dow (DOW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Dow (DOW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.81B

Capex

-$4.21B

Free Cash Flow

-$1.4B

FCF Margin

-49.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Dow (DOW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$1.4B

Cash flow breakdown for Dow (DOW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.81B	$2.81B
Capital Expenditure	-$4.21B	-$1.4B
Free Cash Flow	-$1.4B	-$1.4B
Acquisitions	$633M	-$762M
Other Investing	$455M	-$307M
Dividends Paid	-$2.49B	-$2.79B
Net Debt Change	$2.7B	-$95M
Other Financing	$4.93B	$4.83B
Forex Effect	$338M	$5.17B
Net Cash Increase	$5.17B	$5.17B

Operating Cash Flow$2.81B
Capital Expenditure-$4.21B
Free Cash Flow-$1.4B
Acquisitions$633M
Other Investing$455M
Dividends Paid-$2.49B
Net Debt Change$2.7B
Other Financing$4.93B
Forex Effect$338M
Net Cash Increase$5.17B

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

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