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 Starbucks (SBUX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Starbucks generated $4.35B of operating cash flow and $2.73B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 62.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Starbucks (SBUX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Starbucks (SBUX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.35B

Capex

-$1.62B

Free Cash Flow

$2.73B

FCF Margin

+62.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Starbucks (SBUX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.73B

Cash flow breakdown for Starbucks (SBUX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.35B	$4.35B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.62B	$2.73B
Free Cash Flow	$2.73B	$2.73B
Other Investing	-$19.7M	$2.71B
Dividends Paid	-$2.8B	-$91.7M
Net Debt Change	-$500M	-$592M
Other Financing	-$11.3M	-$603M
Forex Effect	-$536M	-$1.14B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.14B	-$1.14B

Operating Cash Flow$4.35B
Capital Expenditure-$1.62B
Free Cash Flow$2.73B
Other Investing-$19.7M
Dividends Paid-$2.8B
Net Debt Change-$500M
Other Financing-$11.3M
Forex Effect-$536M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.14B

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

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