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 Vertiv Holdings (VRT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Vertiv Holdings generated $2.6B of operating cash flow and $2.31B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 88.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Vertiv Holdings (VRT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Vertiv Holdings (VRT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.6B

Capex

-$294M

Free Cash Flow

$2.31B

FCF Margin

+88.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Vertiv Holdings (VRT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.31B

Cash flow breakdown for Vertiv Holdings (VRT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.6B	$2.6B
Capital Expenditure	-$294M	$2.31B
Free Cash Flow	$2.31B	$2.31B
Acquisitions	-$1.21B	$1.1B
Other Investing	-$360M	$739M
Dividends Paid	-$76.3M	$662M
Other Financing & FX	$52.8M	$715M
Net Cash Increase	$715M	$715M

Operating Cash Flow$2.6B
Capital Expenditure-$294M
Free Cash Flow$2.31B
Acquisitions-$1.21B
Other Investing-$360M
Dividends Paid-$76.3M
Other Financing & FX$52.8M
Net Cash Increase$715M

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

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