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 International Paper (IP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, International Paper generated $2.6B of operating cash flow and $553M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 21.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did International Paper (IP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

International Paper (IP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.6B

Capex

-$2.04B

Free Cash Flow

$553M

FCF Margin

+21.3%

Cash flow waterfall for International Paper (IP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $553M

Cash flow breakdown for International Paper (IP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.6B	$2.6B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.04B	$553M
Free Cash Flow	$553M	$553M
Acquisitions	$1.06B	$1.61B
Other Investing	$287M	$1.9B
Dividends Paid	-$978M	$923M
Net Debt Change	-$739M	$184M
Other Financing & FX	-$33M	$151M
Net Cash Increase	$151M	$151M

Operating Cash Flow$2.6B
Capital Expenditure-$2.04B
Free Cash Flow$553M
Acquisitions$1.06B
Other Investing$287M
Dividends Paid-$978M
Net Debt Change-$739M
Other Financing & FX-$33M
Net Cash Increase$151M

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

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