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 Shopify (SHOP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Shopify generated $2.16B of operating cash flow and $2.13B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 98.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Shopify (SHOP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Shopify (SHOP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.16B

Capex

-$27.1M

Free Cash Flow

$2.13B

FCF Margin

+98.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Shopify (SHOP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.13B

Cash flow breakdown for Shopify (SHOP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.16B	$2.16B
Capital Expenditure	-$27.1M	$2.13B
Free Cash Flow	$2.13B	$2.13B
Other Investing	-$231M	$1.9B
Share Buybacks	-$491M	$1.41B
Other Financing & FX	-$864M	$542M
Net Cash Increase	$542M	$542M

Operating Cash Flow$2.16B
Capital Expenditure-$27.1M
Free Cash Flow$2.13B
Other Investing-$231M
Share Buybacks-$491M
Other Financing & FX-$864M
Net Cash Increase$542M

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

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