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 Fastly (FSLY) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Fastly generated $106M of operating cash flow and $54.7M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 51.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Fastly (FSLY) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Fastly (FSLY) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$106M

Capex

-$50.8M

Free Cash Flow

$54.7M

FCF Margin

+51.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Fastly (FSLY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $54.7M

Cash flow breakdown for Fastly (FSLY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$106M	$106M
Capital Expenditure	-$50.8M	$54.7M
Free Cash Flow	$54.7M	$54.7M
Other Investing	-$10.3M	$44.4M
Net Debt Change	$141M	$185M
Other Financing & FX	-$164M	$21.2M
Net Cash Increase	$21.2M	$21.2M

Operating Cash Flow$106M
Capital Expenditure-$50.8M
Free Cash Flow$54.7M
Other Investing-$10.3M
Net Debt Change$141M
Other Financing & FX-$164M
Net Cash Increase$21.2M

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

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