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 General Dynamics (GD) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, General Dynamics generated $7.42B of operating cash flow and $6.2B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 83.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did General Dynamics (GD) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent General Dynamics's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

General Dynamics (GD) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$7.42B

Capex

-$1.22B

Free Cash Flow

$6.2B

FCF Margin

+83.5%

Cash flow waterfall for General Dynamics (GD) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $6.2B

Cash flow breakdown for General Dynamics (GD) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$7.42B	$7.42B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.22B	$6.2B
Free Cash Flow	$6.2B	$6.2B
Other Investing	-$132M	$6.07B
Share Buybacks	-$854M	$5.22B
Dividends Paid	-$1.62B	$3.6B
Net Debt Change	-$1.59B	$2.01B
Other Financing & FX	$411M	$2.42B
Net Cash Increase	$2.41B	$2.41B

Operating Cash Flow$7.42B
Capital Expenditure-$1.22B
Free Cash Flow$6.2B
Other Investing-$132M
Share Buybacks-$854M
Dividends Paid-$1.62B
Net Debt Change-$1.59B
Other Financing & FX$411M
Net Cash Increase$2.41B

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

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