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 MetLife (MET) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, MetLife generated $16.5B of operating cash flow and $16.5B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 100% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did MetLife (MET) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

MetLife (MET) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$16.5B

Capex

$0.00

Free Cash Flow

$16.5B

FCF Margin

+100.0%

Cash flow waterfall for MetLife (MET) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $16.5B

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

Cash flow breakdown for MetLife (MET) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$16.5B	$16.5B
Capital Expenditure	$0.00	$16.5B
Free Cash Flow	$16.5B	$16.5B
Acquisitions	-$1.17B	$15.4B
Other Investing	-$16.6B	-$1.21B
Share Buybacks	-$2.23B	-$3.44B
Dividends Paid	-$1.68B	-$5.12B
Net Debt Change	-$283M	-$5.4B
Other Financing	$7.69B	$2.29B
Forex Effect	-$931M	$1.36B
Net Cash Increase	$1.36B	$1.36B

Operating Cash Flow$16.5B
Capital Expenditure$0.00
Free Cash Flow$16.5B
Acquisitions-$1.17B
Other Investing-$16.6B
Share Buybacks-$2.23B
Dividends Paid-$1.68B
Net Debt Change-$283M
Other Financing$7.69B
Forex Effect-$931M
Net Cash Increase$1.36B

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

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