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 Ecolab (ECL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ecolab generated $3.03B of operating cash flow and $1.87B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 61.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ecolab (ECL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ecolab (ECL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.03B

Capex

-$1.16B

Free Cash Flow

$1.87B

FCF Margin

+61.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Ecolab (ECL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.87B

Cash flow breakdown for Ecolab (ECL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.03B	$3.03B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.16B	$1.87B
Free Cash Flow	$1.87B	$1.87B
Acquisitions	-$1.61B	$264M
Other Investing	-$73.4M	$190M
Share Buybacks	-$191M	-$300K
Dividends Paid	-$778M	-$778M
Net Debt Change	$250M	-$528M
Other Financing & FX	-$115M	-$643M
Net Cash Decrease	-$643M	-$643M

Operating Cash Flow$3.03B
Capital Expenditure-$1.16B
Free Cash Flow$1.87B
Acquisitions-$1.61B
Other Investing-$73.4M
Share Buybacks-$191M
Dividends Paid-$778M
Net Debt Change$250M
Other Financing & FX-$115M
Net Cash Decrease-$643M

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

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