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 Comfort Systems USA (FIX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Comfort Systems USA generated $1.66B of operating cash flow and $1.38B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 83.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Comfort Systems USA (FIX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Comfort Systems USA (FIX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.66B

Capex

-$280M

Free Cash Flow

$1.38B

FCF Margin

+83.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Comfort Systems USA (FIX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.38B

Cash flow breakdown for Comfort Systems USA (FIX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.66B	$1.66B
Capital Expenditure	-$280M	$1.38B
Free Cash Flow	$1.38B	$1.38B
Acquisitions	-$217M	$1.17B
Other Investing	-$57M	$1.11B
Share Buybacks	$88.8M	$1.2B
Dividends Paid	-$79.3M	$1.12B
Net Debt Change	-$100M	$1.02B
Other Financing & FX	-$173M	$845M
Net Cash Increase	$845M	$845M

Operating Cash Flow$1.66B
Capital Expenditure-$280M
Free Cash Flow$1.38B
Acquisitions-$217M
Other Investing-$57M
Share Buybacks$88.8M
Dividends Paid-$79.3M
Net Debt Change-$100M
Other Financing & FX-$173M
Net Cash Increase$845M

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

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