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 NetApp (NTAP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, NetApp generated $2.07B of operating cash flow and $1.87B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 90.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did NetApp (NTAP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

NetApp (NTAP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.07B

Capex

-$198M

Free Cash Flow

$1.87B

FCF Margin

+90.4%

Cash flow waterfall for NetApp (NTAP) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.87B

Cash flow breakdown for NetApp (NTAP) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.07B	$2.07B
Capital Expenditure	-$198M	$1.87B
Free Cash Flow	$1.87B	$1.87B
Other Investing	-$397M	$1.47B
Share Buybacks	-$950M	$522M
Dividends Paid	-$413M	$109M
Net Debt Change	-$750M	-$641M
Other Financing & FX	-$32M	-$673M
Net Cash Decrease	-$673M	-$673M

Operating Cash Flow$2.07B
Capital Expenditure-$198M
Free Cash Flow$1.87B
Other Investing-$397M
Share Buybacks-$950M
Dividends Paid-$413M
Net Debt Change-$750M
Other Financing & FX-$32M
Net Cash Decrease-$673M

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

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