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 Synopsys (SNPS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Synopsys generated $2.84B of operating cash flow and $2.68B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 94.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Synopsys (SNPS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Synopsys (SNPS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.84B

Capex

-$163M

Free Cash Flow

$2.68B

FCF Margin

+94.3%

Cash flow waterfall for Synopsys (SNPS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $2.68B

Cash flow breakdown for Synopsys (SNPS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.84B	$2.84B
Capital Expenditure	-$163M	$2.68B
Free Cash Flow	$2.68B	$2.68B
Acquisitions	-$16.2B	-$13.5B
Other Investing	$360M	-$13.2B
Share Buybacks	-$236M	-$13.4B
Other Financing & FX	$1.78B	-$11.6B
Net Cash Decrease	-$11.6B	-$11.6B

Operating Cash Flow$2.84B
Capital Expenditure-$163M
Free Cash Flow$2.68B
Acquisitions-$16.2B
Other Investing$360M
Share Buybacks-$236M
Other Financing & FX$1.78B
Net Cash Decrease-$11.6B

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

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