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 Fortinet (FTNT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Fortinet generated $2.8B of operating cash flow and $2.44B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 86.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Fortinet (FTNT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Fortinet (FTNT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.8B

Capex

-$369M

Free Cash Flow

$2.44B

FCF Margin

+86.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Fortinet (FTNT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.44B

Cash flow breakdown for Fortinet (FTNT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.8B	$2.8B
Capital Expenditure	-$369M	$2.44B
Free Cash Flow	$2.44B	$2.44B
Other Investing	-$125M	$2.31B
Share Buybacks	-$3.11B	-$802M
Net Debt Change	-$500M	-$1.3B
Other Financing & FX	-$70.4M	-$1.37B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.37B	-$1.37B

Operating Cash Flow$2.8B
Capital Expenditure-$369M
Free Cash Flow$2.44B
Other Investing-$125M
Share Buybacks-$3.11B
Net Debt Change-$500M
Other Financing & FX-$70.4M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.37B

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

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