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 Darden Restaurants (DRI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Darden Restaurants generated $1.85B of operating cash flow and $1.12B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 60.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Darden Restaurants (DRI) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Darden Restaurants (DRI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.85B

Capex

-$734M

Free Cash Flow

$1.12B

FCF Margin

+60.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Darden Restaurants (DRI) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.12B

Cash flow breakdown for Darden Restaurants (DRI) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.85B	$1.85B
Capital Expenditure	-$734M	$1.12B
Free Cash Flow	$1.12B	$1.12B
Other Investing	$22.6M	$1.14B
Share Buybacks	-$672M	$470M
Dividends Paid	-$693M	-$223M
Net Debt Change	$176M	-$47.1M
Other Financing & FX	$20.2M	-$26.9M
Net Cash Decrease	-$26.9M	-$26.9M

Operating Cash Flow$1.85B
Capital Expenditure-$734M
Free Cash Flow$1.12B
Other Investing$22.6M
Share Buybacks-$672M
Dividends Paid-$693M
Net Debt Change$176M
Other Financing & FX$20.2M
Net Cash Decrease-$26.9M

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

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