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 Stryker (SYK) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Stryker generated $5.38B of operating cash flow and $4.57B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 85% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Stryker (SYK) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Stryker (SYK) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.38B

Capex

-$804M

Free Cash Flow

$4.57B

FCF Margin

+85.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Stryker (SYK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.57B

Cash flow breakdown for Stryker (SYK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.38B	$5.38B
Capital Expenditure	-$804M	$4.57B
Free Cash Flow	$4.57B	$4.57B
Other Investing	-$111M	$4.46B
Share Buybacks	-$187M	$4.27B
Dividends Paid	-$1.3B	$2.97B
Net Debt Change	-$3.05B	-$75M
Other Financing & FX	$633M	$558M
Net Cash Increase	$558M	$558M

Operating Cash Flow$5.38B
Capital Expenditure-$804M
Free Cash Flow$4.57B
Other Investing-$111M
Share Buybacks-$187M
Dividends Paid-$1.3B
Net Debt Change-$3.05B
Other Financing & FX$633M
Net Cash Increase$558M

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

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