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 Global Payments (GPN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Global Payments generated $1.81B of operating cash flow and $1.06B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 58.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Global Payments (GPN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Global Payments (GPN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.81B

Capex

-$752M

Free Cash Flow

$1.06B

FCF Margin

+58.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Global Payments (GPN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.06B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Global Payments (GPN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.81B	$1.81B
Capital Expenditure	-$752M	$1.06B
Free Cash Flow	$1.06B	$1.06B
Acquisitions	-$1.64B	-$583M
Other Investing	$8.1B	$7.52B
Share Buybacks	-$903M	$6.61B
Dividends Paid	-$246M	$6.37B
Net Debt Change	-$1.57B	$4.8B
Other Financing	-$1.97B	$2.83B
Forex Effect	-$202M	$2.62B
Net Cash Increase	$2.62B	$2.62B

Operating Cash Flow$1.81B
Capital Expenditure-$752M
Free Cash Flow$1.06B
Acquisitions-$1.64B
Other Investing$8.1B
Share Buybacks-$903M
Dividends Paid-$246M
Net Debt Change-$1.57B
Other Financing-$1.97B
Forex Effect-$202M
Net Cash Increase$2.62B

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

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