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 Nordson (NDSN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Nordson generated $766M of operating cash flow and $718M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 93.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Nordson (NDSN) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Nordson's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Nordson (NDSN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$766M

Capex

-$48.3M

Free Cash Flow

$718M

FCF Margin

+93.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Nordson (NDSN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $718M

Cash flow breakdown for Nordson (NDSN) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$766M	$766M
Capital Expenditure	-$48.3M	$718M
Free Cash Flow	$718M	$718M
Acquisitions	$45.4M	$764M
Other Investing	-$36.3M	$727M
Share Buybacks	-$381M	$346M
Dividends Paid	-$182M	$164M
Net Debt Change	-$230M	-$65.4M
Other Financing & FX	$52.5M	-$12.9M
Net Cash Decrease	-$12.9M	-$12.9M

Operating Cash Flow$766M
Capital Expenditure-$48.3M
Free Cash Flow$718M
Acquisitions$45.4M
Other Investing-$36.3M
Share Buybacks-$381M
Dividends Paid-$182M
Net Debt Change-$230M
Other Financing & FX$52.5M
Net Cash Decrease-$12.9M

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

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