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 Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Hewlett Packard Enterprise generated $6.36B of operating cash flow and $5.64B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 88.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Hewlett Packard Enterprise's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.36B

Capex

-$718M

Free Cash Flow

$5.64B

FCF Margin

+88.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $5.64B

Cash flow breakdown for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.36B	$6.36B
Capital Expenditure	-$718M	$5.64B
Free Cash Flow	$5.64B	$5.64B
Acquisitions	-$12.2B	-$6.61B
Other Investing	-$207M	-$6.81B
Share Buybacks	-$412M	-$7.23B
Dividends Paid	-$837M	-$8.06B
Net Debt Change	$2.01B	-$6.06B
Other Financing	-$311M	-$6.37B
Forex Effect	$791M	-$5.58B
Net Cash Decrease	-$5.58B	-$5.58B

Operating Cash Flow$6.36B
Capital Expenditure-$718M
Free Cash Flow$5.64B
Acquisitions-$12.2B
Other Investing-$207M
Share Buybacks-$412M
Dividends Paid-$837M
Net Debt Change$2.01B
Other Financing-$311M
Forex Effect$791M
Net Cash Decrease-$5.58B

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

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