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 Welltower (WELL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Welltower generated $2.95B of operating cash flow and $2.54B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 86.1% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Welltower (WELL) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Welltower (WELL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.95B

Capex

-$411M

Free Cash Flow

$2.54B

FCF Margin

+86.1%

Cash flow waterfall for Welltower (WELL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.54B

Cash flow breakdown for Welltower (WELL) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.95B	$2.95B
Capital Expenditure	-$411M	$2.54B
Free Cash Flow	$2.54B	$2.54B
Acquisitions	-$13.5B	-$10.9B
Other Investing	$4.6B	-$6.34B
Dividends Paid	-$1.97B	-$8.31B
Net Debt Change	$1.58B	-$6.72B
Other Financing	$7.88B	$1.15B
Forex Effect	$56M	$1.21B
Net Cash Increase	$1.21B	$1.21B

Operating Cash Flow$2.95B
Capital Expenditure-$411M
Free Cash Flow$2.54B
Acquisitions-$13.5B
Other Investing$4.6B
Dividends Paid-$1.97B
Net Debt Change$1.58B
Other Financing$7.88B
Forex Effect$56M
Net Cash Increase$1.21B

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

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Data & methodology

Welltower (WELL) Key Financials

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Income Statement

Balance Sheet

Profitability

Operating Margin4.6%

Cash Flow

Capital Return

Forecast & Valuation

Operations

Employees712.0

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