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 Ford Motor (F) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ford Motor generated $18.9B of operating cash flow and $9.55B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 50.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ford Motor (F) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ford Motor (F) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$18.9B

Capex

-$9.37B

Free Cash Flow

$9.55B

FCF Margin

+50.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Ford Motor (F) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $9.55B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Ford Motor (F) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$18.9B	$18.9B
Capital Expenditure	-$9.37B	$9.55B
Free Cash Flow	$9.55B	$9.55B
Acquisitions	-$1.17B	$8.38B
Other Investing	-$8.49B	-$111M
Share Buybacks	-$311M	-$422M
Dividends Paid	-$2.4B	-$2.82B
Other Financing & FX	-$318M	-$3.14B
Net Cash Decrease	-$3.14B	-$3.14B

Operating Cash Flow$18.9B
Capital Expenditure-$9.37B
Free Cash Flow$9.55B
Acquisitions-$1.17B
Other Investing-$8.49B
Share Buybacks-$311M
Dividends Paid-$2.4B
Other Financing & FX-$318M
Net Cash Decrease-$3.14B

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

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