Cash generation remains capable but uneven, with 2026Q3 free cash flow of $1.0B (12.5% FCF margin) and cumulative operating cash flow of roughly $9.2B against $7.2B of net income over ten quarters, though quarterly OCF/NI swings between 0.54 and 2.45 and working capital contributions have ranged from a $982M inflow to a $604M outflow.
Baker Hughes Company (BKR) cash flow statement — 11-year operating, investing & financing cash flows
| Metric | TTM | Dec'25 | Dec'24 | Dec'23 | Dec'22 | Dec'21 | Dec'20 | Dec'19 | Dec'18 | Dec'17 | Dec'16 | Dec'15 |
|---|
| Cash from Operations | 4.51B | 3.81B | 3.33B | 3.06B | 1.89B | 2.37B | 1.3B | 2.13B | 1.76B | -799M | 262M | 1.28B |
| Operating CF Margin % | - | 13.74% | 11.97% | 12.01% | 8.92% | 11.58% | 6.3% | 8.92% | 7.7% | -4.65% | 1.97% | 7.65% |
| Operating CF Growth % | 182.09% | 14.35% | 8.82% | 62.18% | -20.47% | 82.06% | -38.66% | 20.66% | 320.53% | -404.96% | -79.48% | - |
| Net Income | 2.9B | 2.62B | 3.01B | 1.97B | -578M | 336M | 951M | 94M | 195M | -396M | 403M | -606M |
| Depreciation & Amortization | 1.52B | 1.19B | 1.14B | 1.09B | 1.06B | 1.1B | 1.32B | 1.42B | 1.49B | 1.1B | 550M | 530M |
| Stock-Based Compensation | 209M | 203M | 202M | 197M | 207M | 205M | 210M | 187M | 0 | 37M | 0 | 0 |
| Deferred Taxes | -844M | -702M | -671M | -59M | 105M | 133M | 160M | 51M | -249M | -333M | 39M | -96M |
| Other Non-Cash Items | -2.44B | 103M | -290M | -561M | 971M | -19M | -1.78B | -61M | 56M | -9M | -91M | 204M |
| Working Capital Changes | 1.4B | 394M | -53M | 428M | 122M | 614M | 443M | 437M | 274M | -1.2B | -639M | 1.25B |
| Change in Receivables | -900M | 358M | -159M | -986M | -625M | -126M | 680M | -583M | -204M | -1.19B | 278M | 469M |
| Change in Inventory | -124M | 79M | -102M | -461M | -885M | 170M | -80M | -200M | -339M | 418M | 345M | 442M |
| Change in Payables | 427M | 11M | 91M | 61M | 605M | 246M | -711M | 249M | 794M | 303M | -256M | -450M |
| Cash from Investing | -13.79B | -2.04B | -1.02B | -817M | -1.56B | -463M | -618M | -1.04B | -578M | -4.12B | -472M | -466M |
| Capital Expenditures | -1.28B | -1.27B | -1.28B | -1.22B | -772M | -541M | -787M | -976M | -995M | -665M | -424M | -607M |
| CapEx % of Revenue | 4.47% | 4.59% | 4.59% | 4.8% | 3.65% | 2.64% | 3.8% | 4.09% | 4.35% | 3.87% | 3.2% | 3.64% |
| Acquisitions | -12.73B | -830M | 203M | -8M | -845M | -109M | 161M | -99M | -89M | -3.35B | -1M | 95M |
| Investments | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Other Investing | 224M | 58M | -33M | 43M | 53M | 187M | 8M | 30M | 506M | -113M | -47M | 46M |
| Cash from Financing | 10.65B | -1.48B | -1.53B | -2.03B | -1.59B | -2.14B | 225M | -1.53B | -4.36B | 10.92B | -102M | -515M |
| Debt Issued (Net) | 11.88B | 0 | -143M | -651M | -28M | -936M | 991M | -587M | -1.06B | 3.09B | -156M | -45M |
| Equity Issued (Net) | 0 | -384M | -484M | -538M | -828M | -434M | 0 | -250M | -2.49B | -477M | 0 | 0 |
| Dividends Paid | -911M | -910M | -836M | -786M | -726M | -592M | -488M | -395M | -315M | -155M | 0 | -297M |
| Share Repurchases | 0 | -384M | -484M | -538M | -828M | -434M | 0 | -250M | -2.49B | -477M | 0 | 0 |
| Other Financing | -327M | -188M | -64M | -53M | -10M | -181M | -278M | -302M | -502M | 8.46B | 54M | -289M |
| Net Change in Cash | 1.38B | 351M | 718M | 158M | -1.36B | -279M | 883M | -474M | -3.31B | 6.05B | -451M | 42M |
| Free Cash Flow | 3.23B | 2.54B | 2.05B | 1.84B | 1.12B | 1.83B | 517M | 1.15B | 767M | -1.46B | -162M | 670M |
| FCF Margin % | 11.23% | 9.15% | 7.38% | 7.21% | 5.28% | 8.94% | 2.5% | 4.82% | 3.35% | -8.52% | -1.22% | 4.01% |
| FCF Growth % | 54.52% | 23.52% | 11.75% | 64.7% | -39.12% | 254.55% | -55.04% | 49.93% | 152.39% | -803.7% | -124.18% | - |
| FCF per Share | 3.23 | 2.55 | 2.05 | 1.81 | 1.13 | 2.22 | 0.77 | 2.06 | 1.77 | -3.43 | -0.38 | 1.56 |
| FCF Conversion (FCF/Net Income) | 1.11x | 1.47x | 1.12x | 1.58x | -3.14x | -10.84x | -0.13x | 16.61x | 9.04x | 13.10x | 1.03x | -2.11x |
| Interest Paid | 404M | 294M | 298M | 309M | 291M | 305M | 289M | 285M | 301M | 109M | 55M | 52M |
| Taxes Paid | 1.07B | 1.16B | 1.04B | 595M | 498M | 314M | 441M | 438M | 424M | 230M | 317M | 264M |
Quick answers to the most common questions about buying BKR stock.
Baker Hughes Company (BKR) generated $3.81B in net cash from operating activities in 2025. This reflects the cash generated directly from core business operations.
Baker Hughes Company (BKR) generated $2.54B in free cash flow in 2025. Free cash flow is the cash left over after capital expenditures, which can be used to pay dividends, repurchase shares, or pay down debt.
Baker Hughes Company (BKR) spent $1.27B on capital expenditures in 2025. CapEx represents the cash invested in physical assets like property, plant, and equipment to maintain or grow the business.
In 2025, Baker Hughes Company (BKR) returned $910.0M to shareholders via cash dividends and spent $384.0M on share repurchases. This shows the company's commitment to returning capital to its equity investors.
Key Metrics
Top Statement Risk
Acquisition integration and leverage uncertainty
Metrics are mathematically derived from official filings.
Cash Conversion Volatility Masks Solid Cumulative Quality
Across the ten quarters shown, Baker Hughes generated roughly $9.2B of operating cash flow against about $7.2B of cumulative net income, yet the quarterly OCF/NI ratio swung violently between 0.54 in 2026Q1 and 2.45 in 2026Q3 per company-reported cash flow statements, indicating timing-driven rather than structural distortion.
The cumulative conversion premium — operating cash flow exceeding net income by roughly 28% over the period — is broadly consistent with a heavy D&A base that averaged near $300M per quarter, but the quarterly dispersion suggests earnings realization is heavily influenced by non-cash accrual swings rather than stable collections. This matters because the prior income statement work showed net margin compressing to 5.1% in 2026Q3 despite 14.5% revenue growth; the 2.45x OCF/NI print in that same quarter therefore appears driven more by working capital release and non-cash addbacks than underlying profit improvement, so investors should treat the cash beat as transitory unless it repeats.
FCF Trajectory Unstable Despite Healthy Peaks
Baker Hughes' free cash flow margin ranged from 0.8% in 2024Q2 to 17.4% in 2025Q4, with the most recent quarter settling at 12.5% according to the supplied quarterly cash flow data, a pattern that signals real cash generation capability but one whose persistence remains unproven given quarter-to-quarter swings of over 1,600 basis points.
The strongest FCF quarters (2025Q4 at $1.3B and 2026Q2 at $1.0B) coincided with large working capital inflows, while the weakest quarters (2024Q2 at $56M and 2026Q1 at $164M) saw working capital outflows of $604M and $390M respectively — confirming that the FCF trajectory is being driven by balance sheet movements rather than operating profit momentum. Given that cumulative FCF over the ten quarters totals roughly $6.3B against $2.2B of dividends paid, the company has generated genuine distributable cash, but the volatility argues against extrapolating the 12-15% recent margins into a sustainable forward assumption.
Working Capital Swings Point to POC Timing Effects
Baker Hughes' working capital contribution swung from a $982M inflow in 2025Q4 to a $604M outflow in 2024Q2, with three quarters posting outflows exceeding $390M, according to the quarterly cash flow data supplied, highlighting a working capital cycle dominated by long-cycle turbomachinery project billing and collection timing.
Such large, bidirectional working capital movements are consistent with percentage-of-completion accounting on multi-quarter equipment and LNG projects, where billings, progress payments, and milestone recognitions can shift cash flows by hundreds of millions between adjacent quarters without any change in underlying demand. The practical implication is that any single-quarter read on cash generation is low-signal; analysts should anchor instead on multi-quarter or trailing-twelve-month aggregates, which show working capital broadly neutral over the full period and operating cash conversion more dependable than the quarterly headlines imply.
Capital Intensity Steady, D&A Coverage Tightening
Quarterly capital expenditures held in a narrow $292M to $377M band from 2024Q2 through 2025Q4, equating to 4.1% to 5.1% of revenue per the supplied cash flow data, but 2026Q3 depreciation surged to $505M from $327M a quarter earlier, suggesting the reported capex figure may be incomplete or that acquired asset depreciation is now entering the run-rate.
For much of the period, D&A meaningfully exceeded capex — for example, $292M of depreciation against $353M of capex in 2024Q4 was roughly balanced, while 2025Q3's $282M of D&A against $295M of capex implies maintenance-level replacement rather than aggressive expansion. The 2026Q3 divergence, with $505M of D&A against a reported $0 of capex, cannot be interpreted reliably given the apparent data gap and the pending $14.2B acquisition, so the maintenance-versus-growth split warrants investigation once post-transaction disclosures normalize.
Acquisition Absorbs Capacity Once Used for Buybacks
Baker Hughes shifted its capital deployment profile materially, ceasing share repurchases after 2025Q2 — where cumulative buybacks totaled roughly $710M across the ten-quarter window — while committing $14.2B to a single acquisition in 2026Q3 as disclosed in the company's reported investing cash flows, a step that appears to consume the balance sheet capacity previously reserved for shareholder returns.
Dividends have been the one consistent return channel, growing modestly from $208M per quarter in 2024Q4 to $228M per quarter in 2026, implying an annualized commitment near $900M that appears well-covered by the roughly $6.3B of cumulative free cash flow generated over the period. However, the $14.2B outflow is an order of magnitude larger than a decade of that dividend stream, and its financing structure and impact on leverage are not visible in the supplied data — this represents a step-change in capital risk that the market may not yet be discounting correctly.
Cash Statement Obscures True Maintenance Burden
The cash flow presentation does not quantify restructuring and separation charges, capitalized engineering costs, or the maintenance versus expansion split within the steady $300M quarterly capex line, all of which are relevant given Baker Hughes' disclosed percentage-of-completion revenue recognition and ongoing portfolio reorganization following its GE separation, per company filings.
A more skeptical framing holds that the roughly $2.0B cumulative gap between operating cash flow and net income may be less a signal of high earnings quality and more a reflection of heavy non-cash addbacks — including SBC averaging roughly $50M per quarter — layered onto a POC revenue model that can accelerate cash receipts ahead of margin realization. Investors should also recognize that the $14.2B acquisition will likely introduce purchase accounting depreciation and amortization that does not reflect cash maintenance needs, making post-2026Q3 D&A an unreliable proxy for true reinvestment requirements until several quarters of combined reporting are available.