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 Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Norwegian Cruise Line generated $2.22B of operating cash flow and -$949M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -42.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.22B

Capex

-$3.17B

Free Cash Flow

-$949M

FCF Margin

-42.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$949M

Cash flow breakdown for Norwegian Cruise Line (NCLH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.22B	$2.22B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.17B	-$949M
Free Cash Flow	-$949M	-$949M
Other Investing	-$1.22M	-$950M
Net Debt Change	$1.05B	$104M
Other Financing & FX	-$104M	$688K
Net Cash Increase	$688K	$688K

Operating Cash Flow$2.22B
Capital Expenditure-$3.17B
Free Cash Flow-$949M
Other Investing-$1.22M
Net Debt Change$1.05B
Other Financing & FX-$104M
Net Cash Increase$688K

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

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