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 Estée Lauder Companies (EL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Estée Lauder Companies generated $1.8B of operating cash flow and $1.29B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 71.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Estée Lauder Companies (EL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Estée Lauder Companies (EL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.8B

Capex

-$513M

Free Cash Flow

$1.29B

FCF Margin

+71.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Estée Lauder Companies (EL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.29B

Cash flow breakdown for Estée Lauder Companies (EL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.8B	$1.8B
Capital Expenditure	-$513M	$1.29B
Free Cash Flow	$1.29B	$1.29B
Other Investing	-$6M	$1.28B
Share Buybacks	-$70M	$1.21B
Dividends Paid	-$507M	$702M
Other Financing & FX	-$207M	$495M
Net Cash Increase	$495M	$495M

Operating Cash Flow$1.8B
Capital Expenditure-$513M
Free Cash Flow$1.29B
Other Investing-$6M
Share Buybacks-$70M
Dividends Paid-$507M
Other Financing & FX-$207M
Net Cash Increase$495M

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

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