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 Edwards Lifesciences (EW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Edwards Lifesciences generated $1.36B of operating cash flow and $1.09B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 80.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Edwards Lifesciences (EW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Edwards Lifesciences (EW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.36B

Capex

-$269M

Free Cash Flow

$1.09B

FCF Margin

+80.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Edwards Lifesciences (EW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.09B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Edwards Lifesciences (EW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.36B	$1.36B
Capital Expenditure	-$269M	$1.09B
Free Cash Flow	$1.09B	$1.09B
Acquisitions	-$35.1M	$1.05B
Other Investing	-$587M	$468M
Share Buybacks	-$411M	$56.7M
Other Financing & FX	-$758M	-$701M
Net Cash Decrease	-$701M	-$701M

Operating Cash Flow$1.36B
Capital Expenditure-$269M
Free Cash Flow$1.09B
Acquisitions-$35.1M
Other Investing-$587M
Share Buybacks-$411M
Other Financing & FX-$758M
Net Cash Decrease-$701M

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

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