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 Mastercard (MA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Mastercard generated $18.2B of operating cash flow and $17.7B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 97.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Mastercard (MA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Mastercard (MA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$18.2B

Capex

-$484M

Free Cash Flow

$17.7B

FCF Margin

+97.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Mastercard (MA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $17.7B

Cash flow breakdown for Mastercard (MA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$18.2B	$18.2B
Capital Expenditure	-$484M	$17.7B
Free Cash Flow	$17.7B	$17.7B
Other Investing	-$900M	$16.8B
Share Buybacks	-$5.04B	$11.8B
Dividends Paid	-$2.84B	$8.93B
Other Financing & FX	-$8.22B	$715M
Net Cash Increase	$715M	$715M

Operating Cash Flow$18.2B
Capital Expenditure-$484M
Free Cash Flow$17.7B
Other Investing-$900M
Share Buybacks-$5.04B
Dividends Paid-$2.84B
Other Financing & FX-$8.22B
Net Cash Increase$715M

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

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