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 Western Digital (WDC) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Western Digital generated $3.29B of operating cash flow and $2.91B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 88.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Western Digital (WDC) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Western Digital's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Western Digital (WDC) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.29B

Capex

-$381M

Free Cash Flow

$2.91B

FCF Margin

+88.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Western Digital (WDC) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $2.91B

Cash flow breakdown for Western Digital (WDC) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.29B	$3.29B
Capital Expenditure	-$381M	$2.91B
Free Cash Flow	$2.91B	$2.91B
Other Investing	-$7M	$2.9B
Share Buybacks	-$2.07B	$829M
Dividends Paid	-$174M	$655M
Net Debt Change	-$1.91B	-$1.25B
Other Financing & FX	-$177M	-$1.43B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.43B	-$1.43B

Operating Cash Flow$3.29B
Capital Expenditure-$381M
Free Cash Flow$2.91B
Other Investing-$7M
Share Buybacks-$2.07B
Dividends Paid-$174M
Net Debt Change-$1.91B
Other Financing & FX-$177M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.43B

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

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