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 Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Vertex Pharmaceuticals generated $4.24B of operating cash flow and $3.71B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 87.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$4.24B

Capex

-$530M

Free Cash Flow

$3.71B

FCF Margin

+87.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.71B

Cash flow breakdown for Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$4.24B	$4.24B
Capital Expenditure	-$530M	$3.71B
Free Cash Flow	$3.71B	$3.71B
Other Investing	-$791M	$2.92B
Share Buybacks	-$1.93B	$988M
Other Financing & FX	-$169M	$820M
Net Cash Increase	$820M	$820M

Operating Cash Flow$4.24B
Capital Expenditure-$530M
Free Cash Flow$3.71B
Other Investing-$791M
Share Buybacks-$1.93B
Other Financing & FX-$169M
Net Cash Increase$820M

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

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