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 Kimberly-Clark (KMB) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Kimberly-Clark generated $3.2B of operating cash flow and $2.58B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 80.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Kimberly-Clark (KMB) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Kimberly-Clark (KMB) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.2B

Capex

-$617M

Free Cash Flow

$2.58B

FCF Margin

+80.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Kimberly-Clark (KMB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.58B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Kimberly-Clark (KMB) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.2B	$3.2B
Capital Expenditure	-$617M	$2.58B
Free Cash Flow	$2.58B	$2.58B
Other Investing	-$2.61B	-$32M
Share Buybacks	-$80M	-$112M
Dividends Paid	-$1.67B	-$1.79B
Net Debt Change	$118M	-$1.67B
Other Financing & FX	$1.65B	-$17M
Net Cash Decrease	-$17M	-$17M

Operating Cash Flow$3.2B
Capital Expenditure-$617M
Free Cash Flow$2.58B
Other Investing-$2.61B
Share Buybacks-$80M
Dividends Paid-$1.67B
Net Debt Change$118M
Other Financing & FX$1.65B
Net Cash Decrease-$17M

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

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