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 Public Storage (PSA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Public Storage generated $3.18B of operating cash flow and $3.06B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 96.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Public Storage (PSA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Public Storage (PSA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.18B

Capex

-$112M

Free Cash Flow

$3.06B

FCF Margin

+96.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Public Storage (PSA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.06B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for Public Storage (PSA) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.18B	$3.18B
Capital Expenditure	-$112M	$3.06B
Free Cash Flow	$3.06B	$3.06B
Other Investing	-$1.43B	$1.63B
Dividends Paid	-$2.88B	-$1.25B
Net Debt Change	$530M	-$724M
Other Financing & FX	$571M	-$153M
Net Cash Decrease	-$153M	-$153M

Operating Cash Flow$3.18B
Capital Expenditure-$112M
Free Cash Flow$3.06B
Other Investing-$1.43B
Dividends Paid-$2.88B
Net Debt Change$530M
Other Financing & FX$571M
Net Cash Decrease-$153M

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

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Public Storage (PSA) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin50.8%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees5.8K

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