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 Hilton (HLT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Hilton generated $2.3B of operating cash flow and $2.16B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Hilton (HLT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Hilton (HLT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.3B

Capex

-$134M

Free Cash Flow

$2.16B

FCF Margin

+94.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Hilton (HLT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.16B

Cash flow breakdown for Hilton (HLT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.3B	$2.3B
Capital Expenditure	-$134M	$2.16B
Free Cash Flow	$2.16B	$2.16B
Other Investing	-$45M	$2.12B
Share Buybacks	-$3.13B	-$1.01B
Dividends Paid	-$141M	-$1.15B
Net Debt Change	$946M	-$207M
Other Financing & FX	$19M	-$188M
Net Cash Decrease	-$188M	-$188M

Operating Cash Flow$2.3B
Capital Expenditure-$134M
Free Cash Flow$2.16B
Other Investing-$45M
Share Buybacks-$3.13B
Dividends Paid-$141M
Net Debt Change$946M
Other Financing & FX$19M
Net Cash Decrease-$188M

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

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