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 McKesson (MCK) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, McKesson generated $6.16B of operating cash flow and $5.94B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 96.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did McKesson (MCK) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

McKesson (MCK) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$6.16B

Capex

-$219M

Free Cash Flow

$5.94B

FCF Margin

+96.4%

Cash flow waterfall for McKesson (MCK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $5.94B

Cash flow breakdown for McKesson (MCK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$6.16B	$6.16B
Capital Expenditure	-$219M	$5.94B
Free Cash Flow	$5.94B	$5.94B
Acquisitions	-$2.72B	$3.21B
Other Investing	-$490M	$2.72B
Share Buybacks	-$3.35B	-$628M
Dividends Paid	-$381M	-$1.01B
Net Debt Change	$631M	-$378M
Other Financing & FX	-$1.51B	-$1.89B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.89B	-$1.89B

Operating Cash Flow$6.16B
Capital Expenditure-$219M
Free Cash Flow$5.94B
Acquisitions-$2.72B
Other Investing-$490M
Share Buybacks-$3.35B
Dividends Paid-$381M
Net Debt Change$631M
Other Financing & FX-$1.51B
Net Cash Decrease-$1.89B

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

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