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 Walmart (WMT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Walmart generated $40.9B of operating cash flow and $12.6B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 30.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Walmart (WMT) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Walmart (WMT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$40.9B

Capex

-$28.3B

Free Cash Flow

$12.6B

FCF Margin

+30.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Walmart (WMT) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $12.6B

Cash flow breakdown for Walmart (WMT) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$40.9B	$40.9B
Capital Expenditure	-$28.3B	$12.6B
Free Cash Flow	$12.6B	$12.6B
Acquisitions	$991M	$13.5B
Other Investing	-$645M	$12.9B
Share Buybacks	-$5.61B	$7.29B
Dividends Paid	-$7.6B	-$314M
Net Debt Change	$5.24B	$4.92B
Other Financing & FX	-$3.62B	$1.31B
Net Cash Increase	$1.31B	$1.31B

Operating Cash Flow$40.9B
Capital Expenditure-$28.3B
Free Cash Flow$12.6B
Acquisitions$991M
Other Investing-$645M
Share Buybacks-$5.61B
Dividends Paid-$7.6B
Net Debt Change$5.24B
Other Financing & FX-$3.62B
Net Cash Increase$1.31B

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

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