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 Ventas (VTR) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Ventas generated $1.75B of operating cash flow and $477M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 27.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Ventas (VTR) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Ventas (VTR) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.75B

Capex

-$1.28B

Free Cash Flow

$477M

FCF Margin

+27.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Ventas (VTR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $477M

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by acquisitions and investment activity.

Cash flow breakdown for Ventas (VTR) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.75B	$1.75B
Capital Expenditure	-$1.28B	$477M
Free Cash Flow	$477M	$477M
Other Investing	-$1.64B	-$1.16B
Dividends Paid	-$893M	-$2.05B
Net Debt Change	-$296M	-$2.35B
Other Financing & FX	$2.3B	-$46.7M
Net Cash Decrease	-$43.8M	-$43.8M

Operating Cash Flow$1.75B
Capital Expenditure-$1.28B
Free Cash Flow$477M
Other Investing-$1.64B
Dividends Paid-$893M
Net Debt Change-$296M
Other Financing & FX$2.3B
Net Cash Decrease-$43.8M

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

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Data & methodology

Ventas (VTR) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin13.4%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees542.0

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