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 Gartner (IT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Gartner generated $1.37B of operating cash flow and $1.26B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Gartner (IT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Gartner (IT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.37B

Capex

-$110M

Free Cash Flow

$1.26B

FCF Margin

+92.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Gartner (IT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.26B

Cash flow breakdown for Gartner (IT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.37B	$1.37B
Capital Expenditure	-$110M	$1.26B
Free Cash Flow	$1.26B	$1.26B
Other Investing	$105M	$1.36B
Share Buybacks	-$2.36B	-$1B
Net Debt Change	$525M	-$475M
Other Financing	$23.4M	-$452M
Forex Effect	$27.5M	-$424M
Net Cash Decrease	-$424M	-$424M

Operating Cash Flow$1.37B
Capital Expenditure-$110M
Free Cash Flow$1.26B
Other Investing$105M
Share Buybacks-$2.36B
Net Debt Change$525M
Other Financing$23.4M
Forex Effect$27.5M
Net Cash Decrease-$424M

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

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