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 Pool (POOL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Pool generated $704M of operating cash flow and $605M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 85.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Pool (POOL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Pool (POOL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$704M

Capex

-$99.4M

Free Cash Flow

$605M

FCF Margin

+85.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Pool (POOL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $605M

Cash flow breakdown for Pool (POOL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$704M	$704M
Capital Expenditure	-$99.4M	$605M
Free Cash Flow	$605M	$605M
Acquisitions	-$21.7M	$583M
Other Investing	-$988K	$582M
Share Buybacks	-$636M	-$53.8M
Dividends Paid	-$325M	-$378M
Net Debt Change	$965M	$586M
Other Financing & FX	-$526M	$60.4M
Net Cash Increase	$60.4M	$60.4M

Operating Cash Flow$704M
Capital Expenditure-$99.4M
Free Cash Flow$605M
Acquisitions-$21.7M
Other Investing-$988K
Share Buybacks-$636M
Dividends Paid-$325M
Net Debt Change$965M
Other Financing & FX-$526M
Net Cash Increase$60.4M

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

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