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 Rentals (URI) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, United Rentals generated $5.74B of operating cash flow and $3.52B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 61.3% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did United Rentals (URI) 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 Rentals's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

United Rentals (URI) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$5.74B

Capex

-$2.23B

Free Cash Flow

$3.52B

FCF Margin

+61.3%

Cash flow waterfall for United Rentals (URI) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $3.52B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for United Rentals (URI) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$5.74B	$5.74B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.23B	$3.52B
Free Cash Flow	$3.52B	$3.52B
Acquisitions	-$341M	$3.18B
Other Investing	-$1.7B	$1.47B
Share Buybacks	-$1.25B	$225M
Dividends Paid	-$477M	-$252M
Net Debt Change	$382M	$130M
Other Financing & FX	-$559M	-$429M
Net Cash Decrease	-$436M	-$436M

Operating Cash Flow$5.74B
Capital Expenditure-$2.23B
Free Cash Flow$3.52B
Acquisitions-$341M
Other Investing-$1.7B
Share Buybacks-$1.25B
Dividends Paid-$477M
Net Debt Change$382M
Other Financing & FX-$559M
Net Cash Decrease-$436M

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

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