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 Mettler Toledo (MTD) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Mettler Toledo generated $901M of operating cash flow and $794M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 88.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Mettler Toledo (MTD) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Mettler Toledo (MTD) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$901M

Capex

-$107M

Free Cash Flow

$794M

FCF Margin

+88.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Mettler Toledo (MTD) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $794M

Cash flow breakdown for Mettler Toledo (MTD) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$901M	$901M
Capital Expenditure	-$107M	$794M
Free Cash Flow	$794M	$794M
Acquisitions	-$96.1M	$698M
Other Investing	-$15M	$683M
Share Buybacks	-$787M	-$105M
Net Debt Change	$81.8M	-$22.9M
Other Financing & FX	$19.2M	-$3.72M
Net Cash Decrease	-$3.72M	-$3.72M

Operating Cash Flow$901M
Capital Expenditure-$107M
Free Cash Flow$794M
Acquisitions-$96.1M
Other Investing-$15M
Share Buybacks-$787M
Net Debt Change$81.8M
Other Financing & FX$19.2M
Net Cash Decrease-$3.72M

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

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Buybacks3.08% TTM

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