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 Corning (GLW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Corning generated $2.91B of operating cash flow and $1.5B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 51.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Corning (GLW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Corning (GLW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.91B

Capex

-$1.41B

Free Cash Flow

$1.5B

FCF Margin

+51.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Corning (GLW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.5B

Cash flow breakdown for Corning (GLW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.91B	$2.91B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.41B	$1.5B
Free Cash Flow	$1.5B	$1.5B
Other Investing	$125M	$1.63B
Share Buybacks	-$63M	$1.56B
Dividends Paid	-$1B	$561M
Other Financing & FX	-$141M	$420M
Net Cash Increase	$420M	$420M

Operating Cash Flow$2.91B
Capital Expenditure-$1.41B
Free Cash Flow$1.5B
Other Investing$125M
Share Buybacks-$63M
Dividends Paid-$1B
Other Financing & FX-$141M
Net Cash Increase$420M

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

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