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 Fair Isaac (FICO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Fair Isaac generated $907M of operating cash flow and $893M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 98.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Fair Isaac (FICO) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Fair Isaac (FICO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$907M

Capex

-$14.6M

Free Cash Flow

$893M

FCF Margin

+98.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Fair Isaac (FICO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $893M

Cash flow breakdown for Fair Isaac (FICO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$907M	$907M
Capital Expenditure	-$14.6M	$893M
Free Cash Flow	$893M	$893M
Other Investing	-$30.3M	$862M
Share Buybacks	-$1.81B	-$949M
Net Debt Change	$1.12B	$171M
Other Financing & FX	-$98.2M	$72.8M
Net Cash Increase	$72.8M	$72.8M

Operating Cash Flow$907M
Capital Expenditure-$14.6M
Free Cash Flow$893M
Other Investing-$30.3M
Share Buybacks-$1.81B
Net Debt Change$1.12B
Other Financing & FX-$98.2M
Net Cash Increase$72.8M

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

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