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 Novo Nordisk (NVO) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Novo Nordisk generated 119B DKK of operating cash flow and 31B DKK of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 26.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Novo Nordisk (NVO) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Novo Nordisk (NVO) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

119B DKK

Capex

-87.6B DKK

Free Cash Flow

31B DKK

FCF Margin

+26.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Novo Nordisk (NVO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: 31B DKK

Cash flow breakdown for Novo Nordisk (NVO) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	119B DKK	119B DKK
Capital Expenditure	-87.6B DKK	31B DKK
Free Cash Flow	31B DKK	31B DKK
Other Investing	3.37B DKK	34.4B DKK
Share Buybacks	-2.4B DKK	32B DKK
Dividends Paid	-51.8B DKK	-19.8B DKK
Net Debt Change	24.2B DKK	4.35B DKK
Other Financing & FX	-22.2B DKK	-17.8B DKK
Net Cash Decrease	-17.8B DKK	-17.8B DKK

Operating Cash Flow119B DKK
Capital Expenditure-87.6B DKK
Free Cash Flow31B DKK
Other Investing3.37B DKK
Share Buybacks-2.4B DKK
Dividends Paid-51.8B DKK
Net Debt Change24.2B DKK
Other Financing & FX-22.2B DKK
Net Cash Decrease-17.8B DKK

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

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