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 Fastenal (FAST) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Fastenal generated $1.28B of operating cash flow and $1.03B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 80.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Fastenal (FAST) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Fastenal (FAST) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.28B

Capex

-$243M

Free Cash Flow

$1.03B

FCF Margin

+80.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Fastenal (FAST) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.03B

Cash flow breakdown for Fastenal (FAST) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.28B	$1.28B
Capital Expenditure	-$243M	$1.03B
Free Cash Flow	$1.03B	$1.03B
Other Investing	$10.5M	$1.04B
Share Buybacks	-$50.3M	$993M
Dividends Paid	-$1.06B	-$63.5M
Net Debt Change	-$110M	-$174M
Other Financing & FX	-$10.1M	-$184M
Net Cash Decrease	-$184M	-$184M

Operating Cash Flow$1.28B
Capital Expenditure-$243M
Free Cash Flow$1.03B
Other Investing$10.5M
Share Buybacks-$50.3M
Dividends Paid-$1.06B
Net Debt Change-$110M
Other Financing & FX-$10.1M
Net Cash Decrease-$184M

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

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