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 FirstEnergy (FE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, FirstEnergy generated $3.21B of operating cash flow and $1.8B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 55.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did FirstEnergy (FE) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

FirstEnergy (FE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.21B

Capex

-$1.42B

Free Cash Flow

$1.8B

FCF Margin

+55.9%

Cash flow waterfall for FirstEnergy (FE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.8B

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

Cash flow breakdown for FirstEnergy (FE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.21B	$3.21B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.42B	$1.8B
Free Cash Flow	$1.8B	$1.8B
Acquisitions	-$51M	$1.74B
Other Investing	-$3.93B	-$2.18B
Dividends Paid	-$1.03B	-$3.21B
Net Debt Change	$3.32B	$103M
Other Financing & FX	-$186M	-$83M
Net Cash Decrease	-$83M	-$83M

Operating Cash Flow$3.21B
Capital Expenditure-$1.42B
Free Cash Flow$1.8B
Acquisitions-$51M
Other Investing-$3.93B
Dividends Paid-$1.03B
Net Debt Change$3.32B
Other Financing & FX-$186M
Net Cash Decrease-$83M

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

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