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 Kraft Heinz (KHC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Kraft Heinz generated $4.75B of operating cash flow and $3.95B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 83.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Kraft Heinz (KHC) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Kraft Heinz (KHC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.75B

Capex

-$803M

Free Cash Flow

$3.95B

FCF Margin

+83.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Kraft Heinz (KHC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.95B

Cash flow breakdown for Kraft Heinz (KHC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.75B	$4.75B
Capital Expenditure	-$803M	$3.95B
Free Cash Flow	$3.95B	$3.95B
Acquisitions	$146M	$4.09B
Other Investing	-$113M	$3.98B
Share Buybacks	$201M	$4.18B
Dividends Paid	-$1.9B	$2.28B
Net Debt Change	-$678M	$1.61B
Other Financing	-$291M	$1.32B
Forex Effect	$73M	$1.39B
Net Cash Increase	$1.39B	$1.39B

Operating Cash Flow$4.75B
Capital Expenditure-$803M
Free Cash Flow$3.95B
Acquisitions$146M
Other Investing-$113M
Share Buybacks$201M
Dividends Paid-$1.9B
Net Debt Change-$678M
Other Financing-$291M
Forex Effect$73M
Net Cash Increase$1.39B

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

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