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 Sempra (SRE) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Sempra generated $4.89B of operating cash flow and -$5.85B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of -119.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Sempra (SRE) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Sempra (SRE) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.89B

Capex

-$10.7B

Free Cash Flow

-$5.85B

FCF Margin

-119.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Sempra (SRE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: -$5.85B

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

Cash flow breakdown for Sempra (SRE) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.89B	$4.89B
Capital Expenditure	-$10.7B	-$5.85B
Free Cash Flow	-$5.85B	-$5.85B
Acquisitions	$285M	-$5.56B
Other Investing	-$5.56B	-$11.1B
Share Buybacks	-$921M	-$12B
Dividends Paid	-$1.67B	-$13.7B
Net Debt Change	$7.66B	-$6.06B
Other Financing	$8.25B	$2.2B
Forex Effect	-$3.16B	-$962M
Net Cash Decrease	-$963M	-$963M

Operating Cash Flow$4.89B
Capital Expenditure-$10.7B
Free Cash Flow-$5.85B
Acquisitions$285M
Other Investing-$5.56B
Share Buybacks-$921M
Dividends Paid-$1.67B
Net Debt Change$7.66B
Other Financing$8.25B
Forex Effect-$3.16B
Net Cash Decrease-$963M

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

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