
As we discussed, the investing activities in the cash flow statement play an important role in evaluating the company’s Retail Accounting performance by investors and other stakeholders. For these reasons, every small business should know how to generate and maintain a cash flow statement and list all the investment-related activities in the statement. The net cash flows generated from investing activities were $3.71 billion for the twelve months ending Sept. 30, 2023. Overall Apple had a positive cash flow from investing activity despite spending nearly $30 billion on the purchase of marketable securities.
- The cash flow statement is one of the three financial reports that a company generates in an accounting period.
- Cash flow from investing activities is a line item on a business’s cash flow statement, which is one of the major financial statements that companies prepare.
- Investing activities are a crucial component of a company’s cash flow statement, which reports the cash that’s earned and spent over a certain period of time.
- When capital expenditure increases, it generally causes a reduction in cash flow.
- Investing activities are one of the most important line items reported on a business’s cash flow statement.
Understanding Cash Flow From Investing Activities

Typically, companies that show a high capital expenditure in their statements also happen to be companies that are in their growth phase. Cash flow, in general, is the inflow and outflow of cash that a business experiences. Investing cash flow relates to all the money generated or spent through the business’ investment-related activities. Cash flow from investing activities can be found on the cash flow statement. As you can see from this investing activities example, ledger account Company X generated a negative cash flow from investing activities for the year.
Using Investing Cash Flow for Growth and Capital
However, as discussed earlier, this is not necessarily bad for the company since such situations are the investing activities prerogative of companies in their initial years that are going through a growth phase. This item is a popular measure of capital investment used in the valuation of stocks. An increase in capital expenditures means the company is investing in future operations. Typically, companies with significant capital expenditures are in a state of growth.

What Activities Are Included in Cash Flow From Investing Activities?
- For instance, a company may invest in fixed assets such as property, plant, and equipment to grow the business.
- This investment will help the company generate more capital in the future since PPE are purchased to improve and grow a businesses’ operations.
- The company also realized a positive inflow of $3 billion from the sale of investments.
- While this signals a negative cash flow from investing activities in the short term, it may help the company generate cash flow in the longer term.
- Cash flow from investing activities can be found on the cash flow statement.
The company also realized a positive inflow of $3 billion from the sale of investments. To calculate the cash flow from investing activities, the sum of these items would be added together, to arrive at the annual figure of -$33 billion. In general, negative cash flow can be an indicator of a company’s poor performance. It can indicate that significant amounts of cash have been invested in the long-term health of the company, such as research and development. While this may lead to short-term losses, the long-term result could be significant growth and gains if those investments are managed well.


Cash flow from investing activities is reported on the cash flow statement. It’s fair to say that the cash flow statement is an integral part of the three financial statements. This is because the cash flow statement bridges the income statement and the balance sheet.
- The activities included in cash flow from investing actives are capital expenditures, lending money, and the sale of investment securities.
- That’s especially true in capital-driven industries like manufacturing, which require big investments in fixed assets to grow their businesses.
- Therefore, an increase in capital expenditure could mean that the company is investing more towards their growth and future.
- Overall, the cash flow statement provides an account of the cash used in operations, including working capital, financing, and investing.
- Investing activities are one of the main categories of net cash activities that businesses report on the cash flow statement.
- The three sections of Apple’s statement of cash flows are listed with operating activities at the top and financing activities at the bottom of the statement.
Cash flow from investing activities is a line item on a business’s cash flow statement, which is one of the major financial statements that companies prepare. The cash flow statement is one of the three financial reports that a company generates in an accounting period. One of the sections of the cash flow statement is cash flow from investing activities. These can either be positive (cash generated by sales of investment securities or assets) or negative (cash spent on long-term assets, lending, or marketable securities). Investing activities are one of the main categories of net cash activities that businesses report on the cash flow statement.
