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 RLI (RLI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, RLI generated $554M of operating cash flow and $548M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 99% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

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

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

RLI (RLI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$554M

Capex

-$5.53M

Free Cash Flow

$548M

FCF Margin

+99.0%

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

Free cash flow: $548M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

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

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$554M	$554M
Capital Expenditure	-$5.53M	$548M
Free Cash Flow	$548M	$548M
Other Investing	-$533M	$15.2M
Dividends Paid	-$243M	-$227M
Net Debt Change	$247M	$19.9M
Other Financing & FX	$2.15M	$22.1M
Net Cash Increase	$22.1M	$22.1M

Operating Cash Flow$554M
Capital Expenditure-$5.53M
Free Cash Flow$548M
Other Investing-$533M
Dividends Paid-$243M
Net Debt Change$247M
Other Financing & FX$2.15M
Net Cash Increase$22.1M

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

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