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 Leidos Holdings (LDOS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Leidos Holdings generated $1.99B of operating cash flow and $1.86B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 93.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Leidos Holdings (LDOS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Leidos Holdings (LDOS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.99B

Capex

-$134M

Free Cash Flow

$1.86B

FCF Margin

+93.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Leidos Holdings (LDOS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.86B

Cash flow breakdown for Leidos Holdings (LDOS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.99B	$1.99B
Capital Expenditure	-$134M	$1.86B
Free Cash Flow	$1.86B	$1.86B
Acquisitions	-$2.64B	-$779M
Other Investing	$14M	-$765M
Share Buybacks	-$659M	-$1.42B
Dividends Paid	-$213M	-$1.64B
Net Debt Change	$1.2B	-$435M
Other Financing	$44M	-$391M
Forex Effect	-$118M	-$509M
Net Cash Decrease	-$509M	-$509M

Operating Cash Flow$1.99B
Capital Expenditure-$134M
Free Cash Flow$1.86B
Acquisitions-$2.64B
Other Investing$14M
Share Buybacks-$659M
Dividends Paid-$213M
Net Debt Change$1.2B
Other Financing$44M
Forex Effect-$118M
Net Cash Decrease-$509M

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

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