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 Hershey (HSY) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Hershey generated $2.35B of operating cash flow and $2.17B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Hershey (HSY) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Hershey (HSY) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.35B

Capex

-$181M

Free Cash Flow

$2.17B

FCF Margin

+92.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Hershey (HSY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.17B

Cash flow breakdown for Hershey (HSY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.35B	$2.35B
Capital Expenditure	-$181M	$2.17B
Free Cash Flow	$2.17B	$2.17B
Acquisitions	-$756M	$1.41B
Other Investing	-$312M	$1.1B
Share Buybacks	-$69.3M	$1.03B
Dividends Paid	-$1.1B	-$70.3M
Net Debt Change	-$589M	-$659M
Other Financing & FX	$20.7M	-$638M
Net Cash Decrease	-$638M	-$638M

Operating Cash Flow$2.35B
Capital Expenditure-$181M
Free Cash Flow$2.17B
Acquisitions-$756M
Other Investing-$312M
Share Buybacks-$69.3M
Dividends Paid-$1.1B
Net Debt Change-$589M
Other Financing & FX$20.7M
Net Cash Decrease-$638M

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

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