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 Meta (META) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Meta generated $124B of operating cash flow and $48.3B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 38.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Meta (META) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Meta (META) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$124B

Capex

-$75.7B

Free Cash Flow

$48.3B

FCF Margin

+38.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Meta (META) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $48.3B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Meta (META) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$124B	$124B
Capital Expenditure	-$75.7B	$48.3B
Free Cash Flow	$48.3B	$48.3B
Acquisitions	-$4.6B	$43.7B
Other Investing	-$35.3B	$8.33B
Share Buybacks	-$22.2B	-$13.9B
Dividends Paid	-$5.34B	-$19.2B
Net Debt Change	-$2.62B	-$21.8B
Other Financing & FX	$22.8B	$1.03B
Net Cash Increase	$1.03B	$1.03B

Operating Cash Flow$124B
Capital Expenditure-$75.7B
Free Cash Flow$48.3B
Acquisitions-$4.6B
Other Investing-$35.3B
Share Buybacks-$22.2B
Dividends Paid-$5.34B
Net Debt Change-$2.62B
Other Financing & FX$22.8B
Net Cash Increase$1.03B

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

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