Reading Financial Data - Step by Step / Cash flow & returns
What is free cash flow?
Free cash flow subtracts capital expenditures from operating cash flow.
Concept
Capital expenditures are cash spent on long-term assets such as property, equipment, or infrastructure.
Worked Example: Compute Apple free cash flow
- Start with AAPL operating cash flow: $111.5 billion for fiscal 2025.
- Subtract capital expenditures: $12.7 billion.
- Free cash flow = operating cash flow - capex = $111.5 billion - $12.7 billion = $98.8 billion.
- grepcent's extracted free cash flow row shows $98.8 billion for the same year.
- Free cash flow can be negative when capital spending is larger than operating cash flow. Read it as a computed cash-flow fact, not a verdict.
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Sources
Informational only - not investment advice.