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 MSA Safety (MSA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, MSA Safety generated $378M of operating cash flow and $309M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 81.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did MSA Safety (MSA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

MSA Safety (MSA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$378M

Capex

-$68.2M

Free Cash Flow

$309M

FCF Margin

+81.9%

Cash flow waterfall for MSA Safety (MSA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $309M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for MSA Safety (MSA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$378M	$378M
Capital Expenditure	-$68.2M	$309M
Free Cash Flow	$309M	$309M
Other Investing	-$189M	$120M
Share Buybacks	-$112M	$8.2M
Dividends Paid	-$82.9M	-$74.7M
Net Debt Change	$41.2M	-$33.4M
Other Financing & FX	$42.3M	$8.86M
Net Cash Increase	$8.86M	$8.86M

Operating Cash Flow$378M
Capital Expenditure-$68.2M
Free Cash Flow$309M
Other Investing-$189M
Share Buybacks-$112M
Dividends Paid-$82.9M
Net Debt Change$41.2M
Other Financing & FX$42.3M
Net Cash Increase$8.86M

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

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