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 Zoom Communications (ZM) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Zoom Communications generated $2.02B of operating cash flow and $1.96B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 97% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Zoom Communications (ZM) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Zoom Communications (ZM) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.02B

Capex

-$60.7M

Free Cash Flow

$1.96B

FCF Margin

+97.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Zoom Communications (ZM) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $1.96B

Cash flow breakdown for Zoom Communications (ZM) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.02B	$2.02B
Capital Expenditure	-$60.7M	$1.96B
Free Cash Flow	$1.96B	$1.96B
Acquisitions	-$120M	$1.84B
Other Investing	-$454M	$1.39B
Share Buybacks	-$1.56B	-$177M
Other Financing & FX	-$149M	-$327M
Net Cash Decrease	-$327M	-$327M

Operating Cash Flow$2.02B
Capital Expenditure-$60.7M
Free Cash Flow$1.96B
Acquisitions-$120M
Other Investing-$454M
Share Buybacks-$1.56B
Other Financing & FX-$149M
Net Cash Decrease-$327M

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

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Buybacks5.47% TTM

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

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