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 Eli Lilly (LLY) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Eli Lilly generated $20.5B of operating cash flow and $13.6B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 66.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Eli Lilly (LLY) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Eli Lilly (LLY) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$20.5B

Capex

-$6.9B

Free Cash Flow

$13.6B

FCF Margin

+66.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Eli Lilly (LLY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $13.6B

Cash flow breakdown for Eli Lilly (LLY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$20.5B	$20.5B
Capital Expenditure	-$6.9B	$13.6B
Free Cash Flow	$13.6B	$13.6B
Acquisitions	-$1.72B	$11.9B
Other Investing	-$2.92B	$8.94B
Share Buybacks	-$5.26B	$3.68B
Dividends Paid	-$5.59B	-$1.91B
Net Debt Change	$4.46B	$2.56B
Other Financing & FX	-$370M	$2.19B
Net Cash Increase	$2.19B	$2.19B

Operating Cash Flow$20.5B
Capital Expenditure-$6.9B
Free Cash Flow$13.6B
Acquisitions-$1.72B
Other Investing-$2.92B
Share Buybacks-$5.26B
Dividends Paid-$5.59B
Net Debt Change$4.46B
Other Financing & FX-$370M
Net Cash Increase$2.19B

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

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