What is an income statement waterfall?

An income statement waterfall is a bar chart that walks from total revenue down to net income, with each step showing how much a cost or tax line removes (or adds). Subtotals — gross profit, operating income, pre-tax income — are anchored to zero so the cascade reconciles exactly to the bottom line.

How much of Waste Management (WM) revenue becomes net income?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Waste Management turned $25.4B of revenue into $2.79B of net income — a net margin of 11%. The waterfall shows where the rest goes: cost of revenue, operating expenses, non-operating items, and taxes.

What are Waste Management (WM) gross, operating, and net margins?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Waste Management reported a gross margin of 32.1%, an operating margin of 18.5%, and a net margin of 11%. Each subtotal in the waterfall corresponds to one of these margins.

Why does Waste Management (WM) have such a high (or low) gross margin?

Gross margin (gross profit ÷ revenue) reflects how much of each revenue dollar remains after direct production costs. Capital-light software and platform businesses often show gross margins above 60–80% because their cost of revenue is mainly hosting and support. Hardware, retail, and commodity businesses show lower gross margins because raw materials and manufacturing costs are significant. The waterfall makes this visible at a glance — the size of the "Cost of Revenue" bar relative to Revenue is the gross margin complement.

What is the difference between gross, operating, and net margin?

Gross margin = (Revenue − Cost of Revenue) ÷ Revenue. It measures production efficiency. Operating margin = Operating Income ÷ Revenue. It adds operating expenses (R&D, S&M, G&A) and measures the profitability of core operations. Net margin = Net Income ÷ Revenue. It also includes interest, other income/expense, and taxes, and represents the shareholder take after everything.

Waste Management (WM) Income Statement Waterfall

Revenue

$25.4B

Gross Margin

+32.1%

Operating Margin

+18.5%

Net Margin

+11.0%

Income statement waterfall for Waste Management (WM) — TTM through Q1 2026

Net income: $2.79B

Margin breakdown for Waste Management (WM) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Revenue	$25.4B	$25.4B
Cost of Revenue	-$17.3B	$8.15B
Gross Profit	$8.15B	$8.15B
Operating Expenses	-$3.46B	$4.69B
Operating Income	$4.69B	$4.69B
Other Income / Expense	-$1.16B	$3.53B
Pre-tax Income	$3.53B	$3.53B
Income Tax	-$734M	$2.8B
Net Income	$2.79B	$2.79B

Revenue$25.4B
Cost of Revenue-$17.3B
Gross Profit$8.15B
Operating Expenses-$3.46B
Operating Income$4.69B
Other Income / Expense-$1.16B
Pre-tax Income$3.53B
Income Tax-$734M
Net Income$2.79B

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