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 Progressive (PGR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Progressive generated $16.8B of operating cash flow and $16.4B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 97.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Progressive (PGR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Progressive (PGR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$16.8B

Capex

-$352M

Free Cash Flow

$16.4B

FCF Margin

+97.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Progressive (PGR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $16.4B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Progressive (PGR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$16.8B	$16.8B
Capital Expenditure	-$352M	$16.4B
Free Cash Flow	$16.4B	$16.4B
Other Investing	-$9.2B	$7.22B
Share Buybacks	-$590M	$6.63B
Dividends Paid	-$8.15B	-$1.52B
Net Debt Change	$1.49B	-$28M
Net Cash Decrease	-$28M	-$28M

Operating Cash Flow$16.8B
Capital Expenditure-$352M
Free Cash Flow$16.4B
Other Investing-$9.2B
Share Buybacks-$590M
Dividends Paid-$8.15B
Net Debt Change$1.49B
Net Cash Decrease-$28M

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

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