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 Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Packaging Corporation of America generated $1.55B of operating cash flow and $702M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 45.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.55B

Capex

-$846M

Free Cash Flow

$702M

FCF Margin

+45.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $702M

Cash flow breakdown for Packaging Corporation of America (PKG) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.55B	$1.55B
Capital Expenditure	-$846M	$702M
Free Cash Flow	$702M	$702M
Acquisitions	-$1.79B	-$1.09B
Other Investing	-$56.3M	-$1.14B
Share Buybacks	-$220M	-$1.36B
Dividends Paid	-$449M	-$1.81B
Net Debt Change	$1.49B	-$319M
Other Financing & FX	-$35.7M	-$355M
Net Cash Decrease	-$355M	-$355M

Operating Cash Flow$1.55B
Capital Expenditure-$846M
Free Cash Flow$702M
Acquisitions-$1.79B
Other Investing-$56.3M
Share Buybacks-$220M
Dividends Paid-$449M
Net Debt Change$1.49B
Other Financing & FX-$35.7M
Net Cash Decrease-$355M

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

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