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 Energy Transfer LP (ET) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Energy Transfer LP generated $10.6B of operating cash flow and $3.65B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 34.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Energy Transfer LP (ET) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Energy Transfer LP (ET) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$10.6B

Capex

-$7B

Free Cash Flow

$3.65B

FCF Margin

+34.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Energy Transfer LP (ET) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.65B

Cash flow breakdown for Energy Transfer LP (ET) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$10.6B	$10.6B
Capital Expenditure	-$7B	$3.65B
Free Cash Flow	$3.65B	$3.65B
Acquisitions	-$2.93B	$720M
Other Investing	$184M	$904M
Dividends Paid	-$4.76B	-$3.86B
Net Debt Change	$5.3B	$1.44B
Other Financing & FX	-$944M	$498M
Net Cash Increase	$498M	$498M

Operating Cash Flow$10.6B
Capital Expenditure-$7B
Free Cash Flow$3.65B
Acquisitions-$2.93B
Other Investing$184M
Dividends Paid-$4.76B
Net Debt Change$5.3B
Other Financing & FX-$944M
Net Cash Increase$498M

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

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