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 IQVIA (IQV) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, IQVIA generated $2.7B of operating cash flow and $2.55B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did IQVIA (IQV) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

IQVIA (IQV) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.7B

Capex

-$159M

Free Cash Flow

$2.55B

FCF Margin

+94.1%

Cash flow waterfall for IQVIA (IQV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.55B

Cash flow breakdown for IQVIA (IQV) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.7B	$2.7B
Capital Expenditure	-$159M	$2.55B
Free Cash Flow	$2.55B	$2.55B
Acquisitions	-$1.6B	$941M
Other Investing	-$433M	$508M
Share Buybacks	-$389M	$119M
Net Debt Change	$1.24B	$1.36B
Other Financing & FX	-$1.15B	$207M
Net Cash Increase	$207M	$207M

Operating Cash Flow$2.7B
Capital Expenditure-$159M
Free Cash Flow$2.55B
Acquisitions-$1.6B
Other Investing-$433M
Share Buybacks-$389M
Net Debt Change$1.24B
Other Financing & FX-$1.15B
Net Cash Increase$207M

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

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Buybacks8.54% TTM

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