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 HP (HPQ) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, HP generated $4.59B of operating cash flow and $3.78B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 82.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did HP (HPQ) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

HP (HPQ) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.59B

Capex

-$815M

Free Cash Flow

$3.78B

FCF Margin

+82.3%

Cash flow waterfall for HP (HPQ) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $3.78B

Cash flow breakdown for HP (HPQ) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.59B	$4.59B
Capital Expenditure	-$815M	$3.78B
Free Cash Flow	$3.78B	$3.78B
Other Investing	$488M	$4.27B
Share Buybacks	-$1.08B	$3.19B
Dividends Paid	-$1.09B	$2.1B
Net Debt Change	-$1.04B	$1.06B
Other Financing & FX	-$91M	$973M
Net Cash Increase	$973M	$973M

Operating Cash Flow$4.59B
Capital Expenditure-$815M
Free Cash Flow$3.78B
Other Investing$488M
Share Buybacks-$1.08B
Dividends Paid-$1.09B
Net Debt Change-$1.04B
Other Financing & FX-$91M
Net Cash Increase$973M

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

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