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 F5 (FFIV) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, F5 generated $1.02B of operating cash flow and $963M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did F5 (FFIV) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent F5's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

F5 (FFIV) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.02B

Capex

-$52.8M

Free Cash Flow

$963M

FCF Margin

+94.8%

Cash flow waterfall for F5 (FFIV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $963M

Cash flow breakdown for F5 (FFIV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.02B	$1.02B
Capital Expenditure	-$52.8M	$963M
Free Cash Flow	$963M	$963M
Acquisitions	-$161M	$802M
Other Investing	-$4.44M	$797M
Share Buybacks	-$651M	$146M
Net Debt Change	-$36.1M	$110M
Other Financing & FX	$73.6M	$184M
Net Cash Increase	$184M	$184M

Operating Cash Flow$1.02B
Capital Expenditure-$52.8M
Free Cash Flow$963M
Acquisitions-$161M
Other Investing-$4.44M
Share Buybacks-$651M
Net Debt Change-$36.1M
Other Financing & FX$73.6M
Net Cash Increase$184M

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

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