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 VeriSign (VRSN) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, VeriSign generated $1.07B of operating cash flow and $1.05B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 97.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did VeriSign (VRSN) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

VeriSign (VRSN) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.07B

Capex

-$24.2M

Free Cash Flow

$1.05B

FCF Margin

+97.7%

Cash flow waterfall for VeriSign (VRSN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.05B

Cash flow breakdown for VeriSign (VRSN) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.07B	$1.07B
Capital Expenditure	-$24.2M	$1.05B
Free Cash Flow	$1.05B	$1.05B
Other Investing	$2.9M	$1.05B
Share Buybacks	-$865M	$186M
Dividends Paid	-$289M	-$104M
Other Financing & FX	$5M	-$98.8M
Net Cash Decrease	-$98.8M	-$98.8M

Operating Cash Flow$1.07B
Capital Expenditure-$24.2M
Free Cash Flow$1.05B
Other Investing$2.9M
Share Buybacks-$865M
Dividends Paid-$289M
Other Financing & FX$5M
Net Cash Decrease-$98.8M

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

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