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 Kinder Morgan (KMI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Kinder Morgan generated $6.31B of operating cash flow and $3.89B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 61.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Kinder Morgan (KMI) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Kinder Morgan (KMI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.31B

Capex

-$2.42B

Free Cash Flow

$3.89B

FCF Margin

+61.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Kinder Morgan (KMI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.89B

Cash flow breakdown for Kinder Morgan (KMI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.31B	$6.31B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.42B	$3.89B
Free Cash Flow	$3.89B	$3.89B
Acquisitions	-$648M	$3.24B
Other Investing	$435M	$3.68B
Dividends Paid	-$2.62B	$1.06B
Net Debt Change	-$959M	$103M
Other Financing & FX	-$218M	-$115M
Net Cash Decrease	-$115M	-$115M

Operating Cash Flow$6.31B
Capital Expenditure-$2.42B
Free Cash Flow$3.89B
Acquisitions-$648M
Other Investing$435M
Dividends Paid-$2.62B
Net Debt Change-$959M
Other Financing & FX-$218M
Net Cash Decrease-$115M

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

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