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 Lam Research (LRCX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Lam Research generated $6.95B of operating cash flow and $6.45B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 92.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Lam Research (LRCX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Lam Research (LRCX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.95B

Capex

-$504M

Free Cash Flow

$6.45B

FCF Margin

+92.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Lam Research (LRCX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $6.45B

Cash flow breakdown for Lam Research (LRCX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.95B	$6.95B
Capital Expenditure	-$504M	$6.45B
Free Cash Flow	$6.45B	$6.45B
Other Investing	-$404M	$6.05B
Share Buybacks	-$4.9B	$1.15B
Dividends Paid	-$1.24B	-$90.6M
Net Debt Change	-$756M	-$846M
Other Financing & FX	$150M	-$696M
Net Cash Decrease	-$696M	-$696M

Operating Cash Flow$6.95B
Capital Expenditure-$504M
Free Cash Flow$6.45B
Other Investing-$404M
Share Buybacks-$4.9B
Dividends Paid-$1.24B
Net Debt Change-$756M
Other Financing & FX$150M
Net Cash Decrease-$696M

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

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