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 Target (TGT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Target generated $7B of operating cash flow and $3.13B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 44.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Target (TGT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Target (TGT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$7B

Capex

-$3.88B

Free Cash Flow

$3.13B

FCF Margin

+44.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Target (TGT) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $3.13B

Cash flow breakdown for Target (TGT) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$7B	$7B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.88B	$3.13B
Free Cash Flow	$3.13B	$3.13B
Other Investing	-$18M	$3.11B
Share Buybacks	-$497M	$2.61B
Dividends Paid	-$2.06B	$552M
Net Debt Change	-$148M	$404M
Other Financing & FX	$243M	$647M
Net Cash Increase	$647M	$647M

Operating Cash Flow$7B
Capital Expenditure-$3.88B
Free Cash Flow$3.13B
Other Investing-$18M
Share Buybacks-$497M
Dividends Paid-$2.06B
Net Debt Change-$148M
Other Financing & FX$243M
Net Cash Increase$647M

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

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