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 Illumina (ILMN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Illumina generated $1.13B of operating cash flow and $989M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 87.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Illumina (ILMN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Illumina (ILMN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.13B

Capex

-$139M

Free Cash Flow

$989M

FCF Margin

+87.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Illumina (ILMN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $989M

Cash flow breakdown for Illumina (ILMN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.13B	$1.13B
Capital Expenditure	-$139M	$989M
Free Cash Flow	$989M	$989M
Acquisitions	-$415M	$574M
Other Investing	$196M	$770M
Share Buybacks	-$784M	-$14M
Other Financing & FX	-$10M	-$24M
Net Cash Decrease	-$24M	-$24M

Operating Cash Flow$1.13B
Capital Expenditure-$139M
Free Cash Flow$989M
Acquisitions-$415M
Other Investing$196M
Share Buybacks-$784M
Other Financing & FX-$10M
Net Cash Decrease-$24M

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

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