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 Realty Income (O) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Realty Income generated $4.08B of operating cash flow and $4.06B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Realty Income (O) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Realty Income (O) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.08B

Capex

-$26.3M

Free Cash Flow

$4.06B

FCF Margin

+99.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Realty Income (O) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.06B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for Realty Income (O) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.08B	$4.08B
Capital Expenditure	-$26.3M	$4.06B
Free Cash Flow	$4.06B	$4.06B
Other Investing	-$6.9B	-$2.85B
Share Buybacks	-$102M	-$2.95B
Dividends Paid	-$2.97B	-$5.92B
Net Debt Change	$2.34B	-$3.58B
Other Financing & FX	$3.75B	$173M
Net Cash Increase	$173M	$173M

Operating Cash Flow$4.08B
Capital Expenditure-$26.3M
Free Cash Flow$4.06B
Other Investing-$6.9B
Share Buybacks-$102M
Dividends Paid-$2.97B
Net Debt Change$2.34B
Other Financing & FX$3.75B
Net Cash Increase$173M

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

Frequently asked questions

Data & methodology

Realty Income (O) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin29.3%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees544.0

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