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 Flex (FLEX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Flex generated $1.69B of operating cash flow and $1.05B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 62.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Flex (FLEX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Flex (FLEX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.69B

Capex

−$633.00M

Free Cash Flow

$1.05B

FCF Margin

+62.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Flex (FLEX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.05B

Cash flow breakdown for Flex (FLEX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.69B	$1.69B
Capital Expenditure	−$633.00M	$1.05B
Free Cash Flow	$1.05B	$1.05B
Acquisitions	−$36.00M	$1.02B
Other Investing	−$3.00M	$1.01B
Share Buybacks	−$944.00M	$69.00M
Net Debt Change	$34.00M	$103.00M
Other Financing & FX	−$3.00M	$100.00M
Net Cash Increase	$100.00M	$100.00M

Operating Cash Flow$1.69B
Capital Expenditure−$633.00M
Free Cash Flow$1.05B
Acquisitions−$36.00M
Other Investing−$3.00M
Share Buybacks−$944.00M
Net Debt Change$34.00M
Other Financing & FX−$3.00M
Net Cash Increase$100.00M

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

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