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 Gen Digital (GEN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Gen Digital generated $1.55B of operating cash flow and $1.52B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 98.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Gen Digital (GEN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Gen Digital (GEN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.55B

Capex

-$22M

Free Cash Flow

$1.52B

FCF Margin

+98.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Gen Digital (GEN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.52B

Cash flow breakdown for Gen Digital (GEN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.55B	$1.55B
Capital Expenditure	-$22M	$1.52B
Free Cash Flow	$1.52B	$1.52B
Acquisitions	-$1.03B	$491M
Other Investing	$43M	$534M
Share Buybacks	-$634M	-$100M
Dividends Paid	-$312M	-$412M
Net Debt Change	-$145M	-$557M
Other Financing & FX	-$38M	-$595M
Net Cash Decrease	-$595M	-$595M

Operating Cash Flow$1.55B
Capital Expenditure-$22M
Free Cash Flow$1.52B
Acquisitions-$1.03B
Other Investing$43M
Share Buybacks-$634M
Dividends Paid-$312M
Net Debt Change-$145M
Other Financing & FX-$38M
Net Cash Decrease-$595M

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

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