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 United Parcel Service (UPS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, United Parcel Service generated $8.36B of operating cash flow and $4.52B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 54% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did United Parcel Service (UPS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

United Parcel Service (UPS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$8.36B

Capex

-$3.84B

Free Cash Flow

$4.52B

FCF Margin

+54.0%

Cash flow waterfall for United Parcel Service (UPS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $4.52B

Cash flow breakdown for United Parcel Service (UPS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$8.36B	$8.36B
Capital Expenditure	-$3.84B	$4.52B
Free Cash Flow	$4.52B	$4.52B
Acquisitions	-$1.47B	$3.04B
Other Investing	$989M	$4.03B
Dividends Paid	-$5.4B	-$1.37B
Other Financing & FX	$2.37B	$1B
Net Cash Increase	$1B	$1B

Operating Cash Flow$8.36B
Capital Expenditure-$3.84B
Free Cash Flow$4.52B
Acquisitions-$1.47B
Other Investing$989M
Dividends Paid-$5.4B
Other Financing & FX$2.37B
Net Cash Increase$1B

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

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