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 H2O America (HTO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, H2O America generated $245M of operating cash flow and -$438M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -178.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did H2O America (HTO) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent H2O America's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

H2O America (HTO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$245M

Capex

-$683M

Free Cash Flow

-$438M

FCF Margin

-178.5%

Cash flow waterfall for H2O America (HTO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$438M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for H2O America (HTO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$245M	$245M
Capital Expenditure	-$683M	-$438M
Free Cash Flow	-$438M	-$438M
Other Investing	$155M	-$283M
Dividends Paid	-$60.4M	-$343M
Net Debt Change	-$106M	-$450M
Other Financing & FX	$579M	$129M
Net Cash Increase	$129M	$129M

Operating Cash Flow$245M
Capital Expenditure-$683M
Free Cash Flow-$438M
Other Investing$155M
Dividends Paid-$60.4M
Net Debt Change-$106M
Other Financing & FX$579M
Net Cash Increase$129M

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

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