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 Tyson Foods (TSN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Tyson Foods generated $2.14B of operating cash flow and $1.23B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 57.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Tyson Foods (TSN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Tyson Foods (TSN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.14B

Capex

-$911M

Free Cash Flow

$1.23B

FCF Margin

+57.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Tyson Foods (TSN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.23B

Cash flow breakdown for Tyson Foods (TSN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.14B	$2.14B
Capital Expenditure	-$911M	$1.23B
Free Cash Flow	$1.23B	$1.23B
Acquisitions	$40M	$1.27B
Other Investing	$321M	$1.59B
Share Buybacks	-$272M	$1.32B
Dividends Paid	-$701M	$615M
Net Debt Change	-$1.08B	-$469M
Other Financing & FX	-$23M	-$492M
Net Cash Decrease	-$492M	-$492M

Operating Cash Flow$2.14B
Capital Expenditure-$911M
Free Cash Flow$1.23B
Acquisitions$40M
Other Investing$321M
Share Buybacks-$272M
Dividends Paid-$701M
Net Debt Change-$1.08B
Other Financing & FX-$23M
Net Cash Decrease-$492M

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

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