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 SAP (SAP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, SAP generated €8.86B of operating cash flow and €8.06B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 90.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

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

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

SAP (SAP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

€8.86B

Capex

-€805M

Free Cash Flow

€8.06B

FCF Margin

+90.9%

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

Free cash flow: €8.06B

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

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	€8.86B	€8.86B
Capital Expenditure	-€805M	€8.06B
Free Cash Flow	€8.06B	€8.06B
Acquisitions	-€655M	€7.4B
Other Investing	€1.18B	€8.58B
Share Buybacks	-€4B	€4.58B
Dividends Paid	-€2.65B	€1.93B
Net Debt Change	-€2.54B	-€611M
Other Financing	-€737M	-€1.35B
Forex Effect	-€354M	-€1.7B
Net Cash Decrease	-€1.7B	-€1.7B

Operating Cash Flow€8.86B
Capital Expenditure-€805M
Free Cash Flow€8.06B
Acquisitions-€655M
Other Investing€1.18B
Share Buybacks-€4B
Dividends Paid-€2.65B
Net Debt Change-€2.54B
Other Financing-€737M
Forex Effect-€354M
Net Cash Decrease-€1.7B

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

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