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 Equity Residential (EQR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Equity Residential generated $1.26B of operating cash flow and $991M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 78.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Equity Residential (EQR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Equity Residential (EQR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.26B

Capex

-$273M

Free Cash Flow

$991M

FCF Margin

+78.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Equity Residential (EQR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $991M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Equity Residential (EQR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.26B	$1.26B
Capital Expenditure	-$273M	$991M
Free Cash Flow	$991M	$991M
Acquisitions	-$138M	$853M
Other Investing	$637M	$1.49B
Share Buybacks	-$500M	$990M
Dividends Paid	-$790M	$200M
Net Debt Change	-$42.7M	$158M
Other Financing & FX	-$29.9M	$128M
Net Cash Increase	$128M	$128M

Operating Cash Flow$1.26B
Capital Expenditure-$273M
Free Cash Flow$991M
Acquisitions-$138M
Other Investing$637M
Share Buybacks-$500M
Dividends Paid-$790M
Net Debt Change-$42.7M
Other Financing & FX-$29.9M
Net Cash Increase$128M

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

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Equity Residential (EQR) Key Financials

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Operating Margin28.1%

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Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees2.4K

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