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 Verisk Analytics (VRSK) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Verisk Analytics generated $1.38B of operating cash flow and $1.13B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 81.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Verisk Analytics (VRSK) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Verisk Analytics (VRSK) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.38B

Capex

-$254M

Free Cash Flow

$1.13B

FCF Margin

+81.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Verisk Analytics (VRSK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.13B

Cash flow breakdown for Verisk Analytics (VRSK) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.38B	$1.38B
Capital Expenditure	-$254M	$1.13B
Free Cash Flow	$1.13B	$1.13B
Acquisitions	-$96.2M	$1.03B
Other Investing	-$14.1M	$1.02B
Share Buybacks	-$2.06B	-$1.04B
Dividends Paid	-$254M	-$1.29B
Net Debt Change	$613M	-$679M
Other Financing & FX	$91.3M	-$588M
Net Cash Decrease	-$588M	-$588M

Operating Cash Flow$1.38B
Capital Expenditure-$254M
Free Cash Flow$1.13B
Acquisitions-$96.2M
Other Investing-$14.1M
Share Buybacks-$2.06B
Dividends Paid-$254M
Net Debt Change$613M
Other Financing & FX$91.3M
Net Cash Decrease-$588M

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

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