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 Kroger (KR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Kroger generated $6.99B of operating cash flow and $2.89B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 41.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Kroger (KR) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Kroger's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Kroger (KR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.99B

Capex

-$4.1B

Free Cash Flow

$2.89B

FCF Margin

+41.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Kroger (KR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $2.89B

Cash flow breakdown for Kroger (KR) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.99B	$6.99B
Capital Expenditure	-$4.1B	$2.89B
Free Cash Flow	$2.89B	$2.89B
Other Investing	-$26M	$2.86B
Share Buybacks	-$2.73B	$129M
Dividends Paid	-$889M	-$760M
Net Debt Change	-$1B	-$1.76B
Other Financing & FX	-$101M	-$1.87B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.87B	-$1.87B

Operating Cash Flow$6.99B
Capital Expenditure-$4.1B
Free Cash Flow$2.89B
Other Investing-$26M
Share Buybacks-$2.73B
Dividends Paid-$889M
Net Debt Change-$1B
Other Financing & FX-$101M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.87B

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

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