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 MercadoLibre (MELI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, MercadoLibre generated $11.9B of operating cash flow and $10.7B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 89.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did MercadoLibre (MELI) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

MercadoLibre (MELI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$11.9B

Capex

-$1.24B

Free Cash Flow

$10.7B

FCF Margin

+89.6%

Cash flow waterfall for MercadoLibre (MELI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $10.7B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for MercadoLibre (MELI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$11.9B	$11.9B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.24B	$10.7B
Free Cash Flow	$10.7B	$10.7B
Other Investing	-$4.1B	$6.61B
Net Debt Change	$3.31B	$9.92B
Other Financing	-$132M	$9.79B
Forex Effect	$1.78B	$11.6B
Net Cash Increase	$11.6B	$11.6B

Operating Cash Flow$11.9B
Capital Expenditure-$1.24B
Free Cash Flow$10.7B
Other Investing-$4.1B
Net Debt Change$3.31B
Other Financing-$132M
Forex Effect$1.78B
Net Cash Increase$11.6B

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

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