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 Ralph Lauren (RL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ralph Lauren generated $1.15B of operating cash flow and $746M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 64.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ralph Lauren (RL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ralph Lauren (RL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.15B

Capex

-$408M

Free Cash Flow

$746M

FCF Margin

+64.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Ralph Lauren (RL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $746M

Cash flow breakdown for Ralph Lauren (RL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.15B	$1.15B
Capital Expenditure	-$408M	$746M
Free Cash Flow	$746M	$746M
Other Investing	$51.5M	$798M
Share Buybacks	-$624M	$174M
Dividends Paid	-$217M	-$42.7M
Net Debt Change	$75M	$32.3M
Other Financing	-$4.4M	$27.9M
Forex Effect	$37.4M	$65.3M
Net Cash Increase	$63.6M	$63.6M

Operating Cash Flow$1.15B
Capital Expenditure-$408M
Free Cash Flow$746M
Other Investing$51.5M
Share Buybacks-$624M
Dividends Paid-$217M
Net Debt Change$75M
Other Financing-$4.4M
Forex Effect$37.4M
Net Cash Increase$63.6M

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

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