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 Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Zebra Technologies generated $915M of operating cash flow and $836M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 91.4% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$915M

Capex

-$79M

Free Cash Flow

$836M

FCF Margin

+91.4%

Cash flow waterfall for Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $836M

Cash flow breakdown for Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$915M	$915M
Capital Expenditure	-$79M	$836M
Free Cash Flow	$836M	$836M
Acquisitions	-$1.3B	-$467M
Other Investing	$7M	-$460M
Share Buybacks	-$762M	-$1.22B
Net Debt Change	$477M	-$745M
Other Financing & FX	-$20M	-$765M
Net Cash Decrease	-$765M	-$765M

Operating Cash Flow$915M
Capital Expenditure-$79M
Free Cash Flow$836M
Acquisitions-$1.3B
Other Investing$7M
Share Buybacks-$762M
Net Debt Change$477M
Other Financing & FX-$20M
Net Cash Decrease-$765M

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

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