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 Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Zimmer Biomet Holdings generated $1.67B of operating cash flow and $1.84B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 109.7% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.67B

Capex

$162M

Free Cash Flow

$1.84B

FCF Margin

+109.7%

Cash flow waterfall for Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $1.84B

Cash flow breakdown for Zimmer Biomet Holdings (ZBH) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.67B	$1.67B
Capital Expenditure	$162M	$1.84B
Free Cash Flow	$1.84B	$1.84B
Acquisitions	-$1.39B	$442M
Other Investing	-$798M	-$355M
Share Buybacks	-$270M	-$626M
Dividends Paid	-$189M	-$815M
Net Debt Change	$139M	-$676M
Other Financing & FX	-$284M	-$961M
Net Cash Decrease	-$960M	-$960M

Operating Cash Flow$1.67B
Capital Expenditure$162M
Free Cash Flow$1.84B
Acquisitions-$1.39B
Other Investing-$798M
Share Buybacks-$270M
Dividends Paid-$189M
Net Debt Change$139M
Other Financing & FX-$284M
Net Cash Decrease-$960M

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

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