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 SBA Communications (SBAC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, SBA Communications generated $1.25B of operating cash flow and $1.02B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 81.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did SBA Communications (SBAC) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

SBA Communications (SBAC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.25B

Capex

-$227M

Free Cash Flow

$1.02B

FCF Margin

+81.8%

Cash flow waterfall for SBA Communications (SBAC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.02B

Cash flow breakdown for SBA Communications (SBAC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.25B	$1.25B
Capital Expenditure	-$227M	$1.02B
Free Cash Flow	$1.02B	$1.02B
Acquisitions	-$498M	$520M
Other Investing	-$412M	$108M
Share Buybacks	-$498M	-$389M
Dividends Paid	-$492M	-$881M
Net Debt Change	$512M	-$369M
Other Financing & FX	$37.8M	-$332M
Net Cash Decrease	-$332M	-$332M

Operating Cash Flow$1.25B
Capital Expenditure-$227M
Free Cash Flow$1.02B
Acquisitions-$498M
Other Investing-$412M
Share Buybacks-$498M
Dividends Paid-$492M
Net Debt Change$512M
Other Financing & FX$37.8M
Net Cash Decrease-$332M

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

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SBA Communications (SBAC) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin47.6%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees1.8K

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