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 Union Pacific (UNP) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Union Pacific generated $9.52B of operating cash flow and $5.7B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 59.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Union Pacific (UNP) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Union Pacific (UNP) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$9.52B

Capex

-$3.82B

Free Cash Flow

$5.7B

FCF Margin

+59.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Union Pacific (UNP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $5.7B

Cash flow breakdown for Union Pacific (UNP) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$9.52B	$9.52B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.82B	$5.7B
Free Cash Flow	$5.7B	$5.7B
Other Investing	$10M	$5.71B
Dividends Paid	-$3.25B	$2.46B
Net Debt Change	-$2.23B	$224M
Other Financing & FX	-$895M	-$671M
Net Cash Decrease	-$671M	-$671M

Operating Cash Flow$9.52B
Capital Expenditure-$3.82B
Free Cash Flow$5.7B
Other Investing$10M
Dividends Paid-$3.25B
Net Debt Change-$2.23B
Other Financing & FX-$895M
Net Cash Decrease-$671M

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

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