Screen for cash flow in new investments

Research
1

Is there a way to screen/rank for stocks that are investing in new assets, capex, buildings, etc?

Any suggestions?

This comes from the investment factor of the Fama French 5 factor model. Thanks.

2

Well, we have CapEx available directly.

CapExTTM>0

More broadly, based on what I think you’re asking, cash from investing activities of less than zero might work:

CashFrInvestTTM<0

Note that CapEx is one of the relatively few cash flow items where CompuStat reverses the sign, while CashFrInvest is more normal. You can pretty much expect that CapEx will be positive and CashFrInvest negative (meaning that they’re both outflows in most circumstances).

3

What about screening for firms that are investing faster than depreciating as a proportion of total assets? I.e.:
(CapExTTM - AmortDepTTM) / AstTotQ