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 Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Stanley Black & Decker generated $1B of operating cash flow and $726M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 72.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1B

Capex

-$277M

Free Cash Flow

$726M

FCF Margin

+72.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $726M

Cash flow breakdown for Stanley Black & Decker (SWK) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1B	$1B
Capital Expenditure	-$277M	$726M
Free Cash Flow	$726M	$726M
Other Investing	$16.2M	$742M
Share Buybacks	-$18.3M	$724M
Dividends Paid	-$502M	$221M
Net Debt Change	-$269M	-$47.1M
Other Financing	$2M	-$45.1M
Forex Effect	$40.9M	-$4.2M
Net Cash Decrease	-$4.2M	-$4.2M

Operating Cash Flow$1B
Capital Expenditure-$277M
Free Cash Flow$726M
Other Investing$16.2M
Share Buybacks-$18.3M
Dividends Paid-$502M
Net Debt Change-$269M
Other Financing$2M
Forex Effect$40.9M
Net Cash Decrease-$4.2M

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

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