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 Sherwin-Williams (SHW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Sherwin-Williams generated $3.65B of operating cash flow and $2.91B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 79.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Sherwin-Williams (SHW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Sherwin-Williams (SHW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.65B

Capex

-$747M

Free Cash Flow

$2.91B

FCF Margin

+79.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Sherwin-Williams (SHW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.91B

Cash flow breakdown for Sherwin-Williams (SHW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.65B	$3.65B
Capital Expenditure	-$747M	$2.91B
Free Cash Flow	$2.91B	$2.91B
Acquisitions	-$1.12B	$1.79B
Other Investing	-$55.8M	$1.73B
Share Buybacks	-$1.88B	-$149M
Dividends Paid	-$787M	-$936M
Net Debt Change	$959M	$23.3M
Other Financing & FX	-$6.2M	$17.1M
Net Cash Increase	$17.1M	$17.1M

Operating Cash Flow$3.65B
Capital Expenditure-$747M
Free Cash Flow$2.91B
Acquisitions-$1.12B
Other Investing-$55.8M
Share Buybacks-$1.88B
Dividends Paid-$787M
Net Debt Change$959M
Other Financing & FX-$6.2M
Net Cash Increase$17.1M

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

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