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 Johnson Controls (JCI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Johnson Controls generated $1.77B of operating cash flow and $1.4B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 79% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Johnson Controls (JCI) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Johnson Controls (JCI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.77B

Capex

-$372M

Free Cash Flow

$1.4B

FCF Margin

+79.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Johnson Controls (JCI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.4B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Johnson Controls (JCI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.77B	$1.77B
Capital Expenditure	-$372M	$1.4B
Free Cash Flow	$1.4B	$1.4B
Acquisitions	$239M	$1.64B
Other Investing	$6.55B	$8.19B
Share Buybacks	-$5.6B	$2.59B
Dividends Paid	-$975M	$1.62B
Net Debt Change	-$548M	$1.07B
Other Financing	-$761M	$309M
Forex Effect	-$409M	-$100M
Net Cash Decrease	-$100M	-$100M

Operating Cash Flow$1.77B
Capital Expenditure-$372M
Free Cash Flow$1.4B
Acquisitions$239M
Other Investing$6.55B
Share Buybacks-$5.6B
Dividends Paid-$975M
Net Debt Change-$548M
Other Financing-$761M
Forex Effect-$409M
Net Cash Decrease-$100M

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

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