First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (FCNCA) Cash Flow Statement

Because loan originations, deposit movements, and securities settlement all route through a bank's operating section, the reported conversion ratio appears driven more by balance-sheet rotation than by any shift in earnings power, as net income held within a $483M–$707M band throughout the period. The 2026Q3 column reports zero for operating cash flow and every other cash line, which should be treated as data unavailable rather than as evidence of a halt in activity. Investors may therefore need to lean on retained earnings and regulatory capital metrics, not visible in this statement, to judge organic capital accretion.

Gross securities turnover is enormous relative to a $600M–$700M quarterly earnings base — purchases of $9.2B against $3.4B of sales in 2024Q4, then the reverse pattern in 2025Q4 with a $3.3B net inflow — implying the portfolio is being actively reshaped rather than held to maturity. That shift toward net liquidation amid deposit contraction appears consistent with the securities book serving as a liquidity buffer, which could constrain reinvestment yields and pressure net interest income further. The persistence of multi-billion-dollar gross flows each quarter suggests duration and mix remain under active management, though realized gains or losses on these rotations are not disclosed here.

Repurchases of $606M–$948M per quarter consumed roughly sixteen times the cash returned through dividends, which edged up more gradually from $38M to $55M per quarter, so nearly all capital return is discretionary and could be throttled quickly if funding conditions tighten. Given the noted slowdown in buyback pace alongside deposit contraction, the modest but steadily rising dividend appears the more durable commitment, while the buyback cadence may be better read as a signal about surplus capital than as a run-rate expectation. The complete absence of buyback activity in 2024Q2 shows the program has already been paused once under different conditions.

The descent from $191M to zero and then into a release, followed by a $55M re-emergence, reads more like normalization around fair value marks set at acquisition than like a deteriorating credit cycle, which aligns with reported improving credit trends. However, the release quarter may partly reflect provisioning that had run ahead of actual charge-offs during the SVB integration, so the return to a positive provision warrants monitoring as possible normalization rather than fresh stress. Because the provision is a non-cash add-back in the indirect method, high-provision quarters mechanically lift operating cash flow, helping explain part of the 1.55x–1.81x conversion readings.