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 Block (XYZ) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Block generated $3.41B of operating cash flow and $3.26B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 95.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Block (XYZ) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Block (XYZ) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$3.41B

Capex

-$154M

Free Cash Flow

$3.26B

FCF Margin

+95.5%

Cash flow waterfall for Block (XYZ) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $3.26B

Note: Other Investing is large — driven mainly by purchases or sales of investments.

Cash flow breakdown for Block (XYZ) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$3.41B	$3.41B
Capital Expenditure	-$154M	$3.26B
Free Cash Flow	$3.26B	$3.26B
Other Investing	-$3.26B	-$4.64M
Share Buybacks	-$2.52B	-$2.53B
Net Debt Change	$2.1B	-$424M
Other Financing	$766M	$342M
Forex Effect	-$1.07B	-$732M
Net Cash Decrease	-$732M	-$732M

Operating Cash Flow$3.41B
Capital Expenditure-$154M
Free Cash Flow$3.26B
Other Investing-$3.26B
Share Buybacks-$2.52B
Net Debt Change$2.1B
Other Financing$766M
Forex Effect-$1.07B
Net Cash Decrease-$732M

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

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Buybacks7.01% TTM

How this company returns cash to shareholders — buybacks, dividends, and stock splits.

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