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 Fiserv (FISV) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Fiserv generated $6.04B of operating cash flow and $4.16B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 68.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Fiserv (FISV) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Fiserv (FISV) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.04B

Capex

-$1.89B

Free Cash Flow

$4.16B

FCF Margin

+68.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Fiserv (FISV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.16B

Cash flow breakdown for Fiserv (FISV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.04B	$6.04B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.89B	$4.16B
Free Cash Flow	$4.16B	$4.16B
Acquisitions	-$317M	$3.84B
Other Investing	$378M	$4.22B
Share Buybacks	-$3.79B	$430M
Net Debt Change	-$455M	-$25M
Other Financing	-$1.14B	-$1.17B
Forex Effect	$322M	-$843M
Net Cash Decrease	-$843M	-$843M

Operating Cash Flow$6.04B
Capital Expenditure-$1.89B
Free Cash Flow$4.16B
Acquisitions-$317M
Other Investing$378M
Share Buybacks-$3.79B
Net Debt Change-$455M
Other Financing-$1.14B
Forex Effect$322M
Net Cash Decrease-$843M

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

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