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 & Johnson (JNJ) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Johnson & Johnson generated $22.9B of operating cash flow and $17.8B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 77.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 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 & Johnson's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$22.9B

Capex

-$5.07B

Free Cash Flow

$17.8B

FCF Margin

+77.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $17.8B

Cash flow breakdown for Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$22.9B	$22.9B
Capital Expenditure	-$5.07B	$17.8B
Free Cash Flow	$17.8B	$17.8B
Acquisitions	-$17.5B	$286M
Other Investing	-$1.75B	-$1.46B
Share Buybacks	-$7.85B	-$9.32B
Dividends Paid	-$12.5B	-$21.8B
Net Debt Change	$1.8B	-$20B
Other Financing & FX	$3.25B	-$16.8B
Net Cash Decrease	-$16.8B	-$16.8B

Operating Cash Flow$22.9B
Capital Expenditure-$5.07B
Free Cash Flow$17.8B
Acquisitions-$17.5B
Other Investing-$1.75B
Share Buybacks-$7.85B
Dividends Paid-$12.5B
Net Debt Change$1.8B
Other Financing & FX$3.25B
Net Cash Decrease-$16.8B

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

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