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 Northern Trust (NTRS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Northern Trust generated $2.46B of operating cash flow and $1.63B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 66.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Northern Trust (NTRS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Northern Trust (NTRS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.46B

Capex

-$835M

Free Cash Flow

$1.63B

FCF Margin

+66.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Northern Trust (NTRS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.63B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Northern Trust (NTRS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.46B	$2.46B
Capital Expenditure	-$835M	$1.63B
Free Cash Flow	$1.63B	$1.63B
Other Investing	-$5.56B	-$3.93B
Share Buybacks	-$1.35B	-$5.28B
Dividends Paid	-$636M	-$5.92B
Net Debt Change	$703M	-$5.21B
Other Financing	$6.51B	$1.29B
Forex Effect	$153M	$1.45B
Net Cash Increase	$1.45B	$1.45B

Operating Cash Flow$2.46B
Capital Expenditure-$835M
Free Cash Flow$1.63B
Other Investing-$5.56B
Share Buybacks-$1.35B
Dividends Paid-$636M
Net Debt Change$703M
Other Financing$6.51B
Forex Effect$153M
Net Cash Increase$1.45B

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

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