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 Lululemon Athletica (LULU) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Lululemon Athletica generated $1.94B of operating cash flow and $1.28B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 66.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Lululemon Athletica (LULU) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Lululemon Athletica (LULU) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.94B

Capex

-$656M

Free Cash Flow

$1.28B

FCF Margin

+66.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Lululemon Athletica (LULU) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.28B

Cash flow breakdown for Lululemon Athletica (LULU) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.94B	$1.94B
Capital Expenditure	-$656M	$1.28B
Free Cash Flow	$1.28B	$1.28B
Other Investing	-$38.2M	$1.24B
Share Buybacks	-$1.12B	$124M
Other Financing	-$1.52M	$123M
Forex Effect	$66.9M	$189M
Net Cash Increase	$189M	$189M

Operating Cash Flow$1.94B
Capital Expenditure-$656M
Free Cash Flow$1.28B
Other Investing-$38.2M
Share Buybacks-$1.12B
Other Financing-$1.52M
Forex Effect$66.9M
Net Cash Increase$189M

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

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