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 W.W. Grainger (GWW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, W.W. Grainger generated $2.11B of operating cash flow and $1.38B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 65.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did W.W. Grainger (GWW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

W.W. Grainger (GWW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.11B

Capex

-$729M

Free Cash Flow

$1.38B

FCF Margin

+65.4%

Cash flow waterfall for W.W. Grainger (GWW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.38B

Cash flow breakdown for W.W. Grainger (GWW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.11B	$2.11B
Capital Expenditure	-$729M	$1.38B
Free Cash Flow	$1.38B	$1.38B
Other Investing	$31M	$1.41B
Share Buybacks	-$1B	$409M
Dividends Paid	-$460M	-$51M
Net Debt Change	$135M	$84M
Other Financing & FX	-$55M	$29M
Net Cash Increase	$29M	$29M

Operating Cash Flow$2.11B
Capital Expenditure-$729M
Free Cash Flow$1.38B
Other Investing$31M
Share Buybacks-$1B
Dividends Paid-$460M
Net Debt Change$135M
Other Financing & FX-$55M
Net Cash Increase$29M

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

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