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 PPL (PPL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, PPL generated $2.67B of operating cash flow and -$1.62B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -60.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did PPL (PPL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

PPL (PPL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.67B

Capex

-$4.3B

Free Cash Flow

-$1.62B

FCF Margin

-60.7%

Cash flow waterfall for PPL (PPL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$1.62B

Cash flow breakdown for PPL (PPL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.67B	$2.67B
Capital Expenditure	-$4.3B	-$1.62B
Free Cash Flow	-$1.62B	-$1.62B
Other Investing	$28M	-$1.59B
Dividends Paid	-$806M	-$2.4B
Net Debt Change	$2.98B	$576M
Other Financing & FX	$335M	$911M
Net Cash Increase	$911M	$911M

Operating Cash Flow$2.67B
Capital Expenditure-$4.3B
Free Cash Flow-$1.62B
Other Investing$28M
Dividends Paid-$806M
Net Debt Change$2.98B
Other Financing & FX$335M
Net Cash Increase$911M

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

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