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 Teradyne (TER) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Teradyne generated $778M of operating cash flow and $553M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 71.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Teradyne (TER) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Teradyne (TER) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$778M

Capex

-$225M

Free Cash Flow

$553M

FCF Margin

+71.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Teradyne (TER) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $553M

Cash flow breakdown for Teradyne (TER) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$778M	$778M
Capital Expenditure	-$225M	$553M
Free Cash Flow	$553M	$553M
Acquisitions	-$127M	$426M
Other Investing	-$22M	$404M
Share Buybacks	-$550M	-$146M
Dividends Paid	-$77.3M	-$224M
Other Financing & FX	-$10M	-$234M
Net Cash Decrease	-$234M	-$234M

Operating Cash Flow$778M
Capital Expenditure-$225M
Free Cash Flow$553M
Acquisitions-$127M
Other Investing-$22M
Share Buybacks-$550M
Dividends Paid-$77.3M
Other Financing & FX-$10M
Net Cash Decrease-$234M

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

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