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 Fifth Third Bank (FITB) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Fifth Third Bank generated $2.18B of operating cash flow and $1.98B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 91.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Fifth Third Bank (FITB) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Fifth Third Bank (FITB) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.18B

Capex

-$191M

Free Cash Flow

$1.98B

FCF Margin

+91.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Fifth Third Bank (FITB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.98B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Fifth Third Bank (FITB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.18B	$2.18B
Capital Expenditure	-$191M	$1.98B
Free Cash Flow	$1.98B	$1.98B
Acquisitions	$704M	$2.69B
Other Investing	$3.12B	$5.81B
Share Buybacks	-$300M	$5.51B
Dividends Paid	-$1.17B	$4.34B
Net Debt Change	-$2.01B	$2.33B
Other Financing & FX	-$1.26B	$1.08B
Net Cash Increase	$1.08B	$1.08B

Operating Cash Flow$2.18B
Capital Expenditure-$191M
Free Cash Flow$1.98B
Acquisitions$704M
Other Investing$3.12B
Share Buybacks-$300M
Dividends Paid-$1.17B
Net Debt Change-$2.01B
Other Financing & FX-$1.26B
Net Cash Increase$1.08B

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

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