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 Lumentum Holdings (LITE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Lumentum Holdings generated $452M of operating cash flow and $274M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 60.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Lumentum Holdings (LITE) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Lumentum Holdings (LITE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$452M

Capex

-$179M

Free Cash Flow

$274M

FCF Margin

+60.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Lumentum Holdings (LITE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $274M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for Lumentum Holdings (LITE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$452M	$452M
Capital Expenditure	-$179M	$274M
Free Cash Flow	$274M	$274M
Other Investing	-$362M	-$88.1M
Share Buybacks	-$47.4M	-$136M
Net Debt Change	$447M	$311M
Other Financing & FX	$1.79B	$2.1B
Net Cash Increase	$2.1B	$2.1B

Operating Cash Flow$452M
Capital Expenditure-$179M
Free Cash Flow$274M
Other Investing-$362M
Share Buybacks-$47.4M
Net Debt Change$447M
Other Financing & FX$1.79B
Net Cash Increase$2.1B

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

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Buybacks0.09% TTM

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