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 NiSource (NI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, NiSource generated $2.12B of operating cash flow and -$832M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -39.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did NiSource (NI) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

NiSource (NI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.12B

Capex

-$2.95B

Free Cash Flow

-$832M

FCF Margin

-39.3%

Cash flow waterfall for NiSource (NI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$832M

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

Cash flow breakdown for NiSource (NI) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.12B	$2.12B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.95B	-$832M
Free Cash Flow	-$832M	-$832M
Acquisitions	$131M	-$701M
Other Investing	-$1.09B	-$1.8B
Dividends Paid	-$547M	-$2.34B
Net Debt Change	$1.84B	-$504M
Other Financing & FX	$297M	-$207M
Net Cash Decrease	-$207M	-$207M

Operating Cash Flow$2.12B
Capital Expenditure-$2.95B
Free Cash Flow-$832M
Acquisitions$131M
Other Investing-$1.09B
Dividends Paid-$547M
Net Debt Change$1.84B
Other Financing & FX$297M
Net Cash Decrease-$207M

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

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