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 Q2 2026, Flex generated $1.81B of operating cash flow and $1.07B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 59.2% 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 Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Flex (FLEX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.81B

Capex

-$736M

Free Cash Flow

$1.07B

FCF Margin

+59.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Flex (FLEX) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.07B

Cash flow breakdown for Flex (FLEX) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.81B	$1.81B
Capital Expenditure	-$736M	$1.07B
Free Cash Flow	$1.07B	$1.07B
Acquisitions	-$1.13B	-$63M
Other Investing	$104M	$41M
Share Buybacks	-$1.64B	-$1.6B
Net Debt Change	$100M	-$1.5B
Other Financing & FX	$1.44B	-$58M
Net Cash Decrease	-$58M	-$58M

Operating Cash Flow$1.81B
Capital Expenditure-$736M
Free Cash Flow$1.07B
Acquisitions-$1.13B
Other Investing$104M
Share Buybacks-$1.64B
Net Debt Change$100M
Other Financing & FX$1.44B
Net Cash Decrease-$58M

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

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