FREE TOOL · NO ACCOUNT NEEDED · LIVE TICKER DATA
Capital Expenditure History Chart
Chart any stock's 10-year capital expenditure in one view, with a CapEx-to-Revenue ratio overlay and a capital-intensity verdict. Auto-populates from Yahoo Finance. Pair it with the FCF history chart and the free cash flow calculator.
How to Read the CapEx Trend
Capital expenditure (CapEx) is the cash a company spends on long-lived assets — property, plant, equipment, data centers, stores, or fleet. It is the clearest signal of how much a business must reinvest to grow or simply to maintain its competitive position. Reading CapEx on its own can mislead, though: a $5B capital budget is enormous for a software firm and trivial for a telecom. That is why this chart overlays the CapEx-to-Revenue ratio, which normalizes spending against the size of the business.
The bars are color-coded by how that ratio is moving. Green bars mark years when CapEx/Revenue fell — the company is generating more revenue per dollar of capital, a sign of improving capital efficiency or operating leverage. Amber bars are roughly flat. Red bars flag years when the ratio jumped more than two points, typically a heavy investment phase: a new plant, a platform build-out, or a capacity race. Heavy-CapEx years depress free cash flow today in exchange for capacity tomorrow — the question is always whether the returns justify it.
Because free cash flow is operating cash flow minus CapEx, this chart pairs naturally with the FCF history chart. When CapEx rises faster than operating cash flow, FCF compresses even if earnings look fine. To screen for companies in the middle of an AI-driven capital build, see the AI CapEx screener.
Related Tools
Complete the cash-flow picture with these related tools:
- FCF History Chart — 10 years of annual free cash flow
- Free Cash Flow Calculator — operating cash flow minus CapEx, with FCF yield
- AI CapEx Screener — rank stocks by capital spending in the AI build-out
- Revenue History Chart — the denominator behind the CapEx/Revenue ratio
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the CapEx history chart show?
It plots up to 10 fiscal years of a company's annual capital expenditure (CapEx) as bars, with a CapEx-to-Revenue ratio overlaid as a line. Together they show both the absolute scale of a company's investment in property, plant, equipment, and other long-lived assets, and how heavy that spending is relative to the revenue it supports.
What do the bar colors mean?
Bars are colored by how the CapEx-to-Revenue ratio moved year-over-year. Green means the ratio fell (the business is getting more revenue per dollar of capital spending — improving capital efficiency). Amber means the ratio was roughly flat. Red means the ratio rose more than 2 percentage points, signaling a heavy investment phase where capital spending is outpacing revenue.
What is a 'capital intensity' verdict?
Capital intensity is simply CapEx divided by revenue, expressed as a percentage. The key-insight card buckets the most recent year: under 5% is Asset-Light, 5–10% is Moderate, 10–20% is Capital-Intensive, and above 20% is Heavy. Asset-light businesses (software, services) convert more revenue into free cash flow; capital-intensive ones (telecom, utilities, manufacturing) must reinvest heavily just to stay competitive.
How does CapEx relate to free cash flow?
Free cash flow is operating cash flow minus CapEx, so rising CapEx directly reduces FCF even when earnings look healthy. Reading the two together tells you whether a company is in a build phase (high CapEx, depressed FCF) or a harvest phase (falling CapEx, expanding FCF). Pair this chart with the FCF history chart and the free cash flow calculator for the full picture.
FINISHED THE NUMBERS?
A chart gives you the trend. The report gives you the argument.
Assumptions, scenarios, and what breaks them — on any public company.
See a sample report →