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 Electronic Arts (EA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Electronic Arts generated $2.55B of operating cash flow and $2.32B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 91% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Electronic Arts (EA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Electronic Arts (EA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.55B

Capex

-$230M

Free Cash Flow

$2.32B

FCF Margin

+91.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Electronic Arts (EA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.32B

Cash flow breakdown for Electronic Arts (EA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.55B	$2.55B
Capital Expenditure	-$230M	$2.32B
Free Cash Flow	$2.32B	$2.32B
Other Investing	-$46M	$2.28B
Share Buybacks	-$1.06B	$1.22B
Dividends Paid	-$191M	$1.03B
Net Debt Change	-$400M	$626M
Other Financing & FX	$102M	$728M
Net Cash Increase	$728M	$728M

Operating Cash Flow$2.55B
Capital Expenditure-$230M
Free Cash Flow$2.32B
Other Investing-$46M
Share Buybacks-$1.06B
Dividends Paid-$191M
Net Debt Change-$400M
Other Financing & FX$102M
Net Cash Increase$728M

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

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