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 Extra Space Storage (EXR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Extra Space Storage generated $1.86B of operating cash flow and $1.75B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Extra Space Storage (EXR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Extra Space Storage (EXR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.86B

Capex

-$105M

Free Cash Flow

$1.75B

FCF Margin

+94.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Extra Space Storage (EXR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.75B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Extra Space Storage (EXR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.86B	$1.86B
Capital Expenditure	-$105M	$1.75B
Free Cash Flow	$1.75B	$1.75B
Acquisitions	$137M	$1.89B
Other Investing	-$552M	$1.34B
Share Buybacks	-$152M	$1.19B
Dividends Paid	-$1.37B	-$186M
Net Debt Change	$653M	$467M
Other Financing & FX	-$447M	$19.7M
Net Cash Increase	$19.7M	$19.7M

Operating Cash Flow$1.86B
Capital Expenditure-$105M
Free Cash Flow$1.75B
Acquisitions$137M
Other Investing-$552M
Share Buybacks-$152M
Dividends Paid-$1.37B
Net Debt Change$653M
Other Financing & FX-$447M
Net Cash Increase$19.7M

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

Frequently asked questions

Data & methodology

Extra Space Storage (EXR) Key Financials

Charts, filings, and peer comparison for every metric

Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin43.3%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees8.4K

Explore more

Deep-dives across the income statement, cash flow, capital return, and valuation

Overview

EXR Overview

Counters