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 Zscaler (ZS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, Zscaler generated $1.1B of operating cash flow and $960M of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 87.2% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Zscaler (ZS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Zscaler (ZS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$1.1B

Capex

-$141M

Free Cash Flow

$960M

FCF Margin

+87.2%

Cash flow waterfall for Zscaler (ZS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $960M

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

Cash flow breakdown for Zscaler (ZS) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$1.1B	$1.1B
Capital Expenditure	-$141M	$960M
Free Cash Flow	$960M	$960M
Acquisitions	-$770M	$190M
Other Investing	-$1.62B	-$1.43B
Share Buybacks	$21.5M	-$1.41B
Net Debt Change	$354M	-$1.05B
Other Financing & FX	$43.9M	-$1.01B
Net Cash Decrease	-$1.01B	-$1.01B

Operating Cash Flow$1.1B
Capital Expenditure-$141M
Free Cash Flow$960M
Acquisitions-$770M
Other Investing-$1.62B
Share Buybacks$21.5M
Net Debt Change$354M
Other Financing & FX$43.9M
Net Cash Decrease-$1.01B

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

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Buybacks0.10% TTM

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