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 Sysco (SYY) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Sysco generated $2.83B of operating cash flow and $2B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 70.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Sysco (SYY) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Sysco (SYY) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.83B

Capex

-$835M

Free Cash Flow

$2B

FCF Margin

+70.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Sysco (SYY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2B

Cash flow breakdown for Sysco (SYY) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.83B	$2.83B
Capital Expenditure	-$835M	$2B
Free Cash Flow	$2B	$2B
Acquisitions	$127M	$2.13B
Other Investing	-$106M	$2.02B
Share Buybacks	-$750M	$1.27B
Dividends Paid	-$1.03B	$243M
Net Debt Change	$132M	$375M
Other Financing	$92M	$467M
Forex Effect	-$110M	$357M
Net Cash Increase	$357M	$357M

Operating Cash Flow$2.83B
Capital Expenditure-$835M
Free Cash Flow$2B
Acquisitions$127M
Other Investing-$106M
Share Buybacks-$750M
Dividends Paid-$1.03B
Net Debt Change$132M
Other Financing$92M
Forex Effect-$110M
Net Cash Increase$357M

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

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