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 NextEra Energy (NEE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, NextEra Energy generated $12.3B of operating cash flow and $2.36B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 19.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did NextEra Energy (NEE) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

NextEra Energy (NEE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$12.3B

Capex

-$9.97B

Free Cash Flow

$2.36B

FCF Margin

+19.2%

Cash flow waterfall for NextEra Energy (NEE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.36B

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

Cash flow breakdown for NextEra Energy (NEE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$12.3B	$12.3B
Capital Expenditure	-$9.97B	$2.36B
Free Cash Flow	$2.36B	$2.36B
Other Investing	-$17B	-$14.6B
Dividends Paid	-$4.81B	-$19.4B
Net Debt Change	$15.7B	-$3.78B
Other Financing & FX	$3.71B	-$76M
Net Cash Decrease	-$73M	-$73M

Operating Cash Flow$12.3B
Capital Expenditure-$9.97B
Free Cash Flow$2.36B
Other Investing-$17B
Dividends Paid-$4.81B
Net Debt Change$15.7B
Other Financing & FX$3.71B
Net Cash Decrease-$73M

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

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