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 Vulcan Materials (VMC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Vulcan Materials generated $1.8B of operating cash flow and $1.12B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 61.9% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Vulcan Materials (VMC) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Vulcan Materials (VMC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.8B

Capex

-$686M

Free Cash Flow

$1.12B

FCF Margin

+61.9%

Cash flow waterfall for Vulcan Materials (VMC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.12B

Cash flow breakdown for Vulcan Materials (VMC) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.8B	$1.8B
Capital Expenditure	-$686M	$1.12B
Free Cash Flow	$1.12B	$1.12B
Acquisitions	$91.3M	$1.21B
Other Investing	$17.3M	$1.23B
Share Buybacks	-$550M	$675M
Dividends Paid	-$262M	$414M
Net Debt Change	-$418M	-$4.2M
Other Financing & FX	-$45M	-$49.2M
Net Cash Decrease	-$49.2M	-$49.2M

Operating Cash Flow$1.8B
Capital Expenditure-$686M
Free Cash Flow$1.12B
Acquisitions$91.3M
Other Investing$17.3M
Share Buybacks-$550M
Dividends Paid-$262M
Net Debt Change-$418M
Other Financing & FX-$45M
Net Cash Decrease-$49.2M

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

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