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 Charles Schwab (SCHW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Charles Schwab generated $7.12B of operating cash flow and $6.67B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 93.8% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Charles Schwab (SCHW) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Charles Schwab's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Charles Schwab (SCHW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$7.12B

Capex

-$443M

Free Cash Flow

$6.67B

FCF Margin

+93.8%

Cash flow waterfall for Charles Schwab (SCHW) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $6.67B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Charles Schwab (SCHW) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$7.12B	$7.12B
Capital Expenditure	-$443M	$6.67B
Free Cash Flow	$6.67B	$6.67B
Acquisitions	-$577M	$6.1B
Other Investing	$6B	$12.1B
Share Buybacks	-$7.89B	$4.21B
Dividends Paid	-$1.76B	$2.45B
Net Debt Change	-$4.68B	-$2.23B
Other Financing & FX	$19.9B	$17.7B
Net Cash Increase	$17.7B	$17.7B

Operating Cash Flow$7.12B
Capital Expenditure-$443M
Free Cash Flow$6.67B
Acquisitions-$577M
Other Investing$6B
Share Buybacks-$7.89B
Dividends Paid-$1.76B
Net Debt Change-$4.68B
Other Financing & FX$19.9B
Net Cash Increase$17.7B

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

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