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 Gilead Sciences (GILD) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Gilead Sciences generated $10.8B of operating cash flow and $10.2B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Gilead Sciences (GILD) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Gilead Sciences (GILD) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$10.8B

Capex

-$576M

Free Cash Flow

$10.2B

FCF Margin

+94.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Gilead Sciences (GILD) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $10.2B

Cash flow breakdown for Gilead Sciences (GILD) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$10.8B	$10.8B
Capital Expenditure	-$576M	$10.2B
Free Cash Flow	$10.2B	$10.2B
Acquisitions	-$906M	$9.32B
Other Investing	-$1.13B	$8.2B
Share Buybacks	-$1.61B	$6.59B
Dividends Paid	-$4.03B	$2.55B
Net Debt Change	-$2.79B	-$239M
Other Financing & FX	-$60M	-$299M
Net Cash Decrease	-$298M	-$298M

Operating Cash Flow$10.8B
Capital Expenditure-$576M
Free Cash Flow$10.2B
Acquisitions-$906M
Other Investing-$1.13B
Share Buybacks-$1.61B
Dividends Paid-$4.03B
Net Debt Change-$2.79B
Other Financing & FX-$60M
Net Cash Decrease-$298M

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

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