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 ServiceNow (NOW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, ServiceNow generated $5.31B of operating cash flow and $4.58B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 86.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did ServiceNow (NOW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

ServiceNow (NOW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.31B

Capex

-$728M

Free Cash Flow

$4.58B

FCF Margin

+86.3%

Cash flow waterfall for ServiceNow (NOW) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $4.58B

Cash flow breakdown for ServiceNow (NOW) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.31B	$5.31B
Capital Expenditure	-$728M	$4.58B
Free Cash Flow	$4.58B	$4.58B
Acquisitions	-$9.78B	-$5.2B
Other Investing	$2.36B	-$2.85B
Share Buybacks	-$1.18B	-$4.03B
Other Financing & FX	-$237M	-$4.26B
Net Cash Decrease	-$438M	-$438M

Operating Cash Flow$5.31B
Capital Expenditure-$728M
Free Cash Flow$4.58B
Acquisitions-$9.78B
Other Investing$2.36B
Share Buybacks-$1.18B
Other Financing & FX-$237M
Net Cash Decrease-$438M

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

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