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 PPG Industries (PPG) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, PPG Industries generated $1.99B of operating cash flow and $1.23B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 61.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did PPG Industries (PPG) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

PPG Industries (PPG) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.99B

Capex

-$765M

Free Cash Flow

$1.23B

FCF Margin

+61.6%

Cash flow waterfall for PPG Industries (PPG) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.23B

Cash flow breakdown for PPG Industries (PPG) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.99B	$1.99B
Capital Expenditure	-$765M	$1.23B
Free Cash Flow	$1.23B	$1.23B
Acquisitions	-$37M	$1.19B
Other Investing	-$9M	$1.18B
Share Buybacks	-$492M	$689M
Dividends Paid	-$633M	$56M
Net Debt Change	$429M	$485M
Other Financing	-$881M	-$396M
Forex Effect	$139M	-$257M
Net Cash Decrease	-$257M	-$257M

Operating Cash Flow$1.99B
Capital Expenditure-$765M
Free Cash Flow$1.23B
Acquisitions-$37M
Other Investing-$9M
Share Buybacks-$492M
Dividends Paid-$633M
Net Debt Change$429M
Other Financing-$881M
Forex Effect$139M
Net Cash Decrease-$257M

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

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