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 Smurfit Westrock (SW) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Smurfit Westrock generated $3.36B of operating cash flow and $1.02B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 30.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Smurfit Westrock (SW) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Smurfit Westrock (SW) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.36B

Capex

-$2.34B

Free Cash Flow

$1.02B

FCF Margin

+30.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Smurfit Westrock (SW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.02B

Cash flow breakdown for Smurfit Westrock (SW) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.36B	$3.36B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.34B	$1.02B
Free Cash Flow	$1.02B	$1.02B
Other Investing	$45M	$1.07B
Dividends Paid	-$912M	$155M
Net Debt Change	-$234M	-$79M
Other Financing & FX	-$44M	-$123M
Net Cash Decrease	-$123M	-$123M

Operating Cash Flow$3.36B
Capital Expenditure-$2.34B
Free Cash Flow$1.02B
Other Investing$45M
Dividends Paid-$912M
Net Debt Change-$234M
Other Financing & FX-$44M
Net Cash Decrease-$123M

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

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