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 Zoetis (ZTS) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Zoetis generated $2.72B of operating cash flow and $2.14B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 78.6% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Zoetis (ZTS) return via buybacks and dividends?

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

Zoetis (ZTS) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$2.72B

Capex

-$582M

Free Cash Flow

$2.14B

FCF Margin

+78.6%

Cash flow waterfall for Zoetis (ZTS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $2.14B

Cash flow breakdown for Zoetis (ZTS) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$2.72B	$2.72B
Capital Expenditure	-$582M	$2.14B
Free Cash Flow	$2.14B	$2.14B
Other Investing	-$78M	$2.06B
Share Buybacks	-$3.4B	-$1.34B
Dividends Paid	-$889M	-$2.23B
Net Debt Change	$2.27B	$39M
Other Financing	-$14M	$25M
Forex Effect	$57M	$82M
Net Cash Increase	$82M	$82M

Operating Cash Flow$2.72B
Capital Expenditure-$582M
Free Cash Flow$2.14B
Other Investing-$78M
Share Buybacks-$3.4B
Dividends Paid-$889M
Net Debt Change$2.27B
Other Financing-$14M
Forex Effect$57M
Net Cash Increase$82M

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

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