Two major mergers gave Top 100 Firms Plante Moran and Prager Metis commanding leads in terms of new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Top 15 Firm Plante Moran’s October merger with Denver-based Top 100 Firm EKSH accounted for 30 of its 33 net and new engagements in Q4 (see “Plante Moran and EKSH finalize merger”).
In the meantime, New York City-based Prager Metis merged in Hackensack, N.J.-based Paritz Co., in October according to clients’ 10-Ks; the combination accounted for 25 of its 26 net and new engagements.
No other firms brought on double-digit numbers of client. It was a slower quarter among the major firms, for instance: Crowe and BDO USA tied for net new clients there with three each, with BDO coming in second for new clients, with four, after Marcum’s eight new clients. (See “Q4 2018 Client Gains Losses” for the major firms table, and see the full list of net new engagements at the bottom of this article.)
Clients by filing status, and more
Given their commanding lead in new clients, Plante Moran and Prager Metis naturally dominated the lists of new clients by filer type. Plante came tops in both new accelerated and new non-accelerated filers, while Prager Metis led among smaller reporting companies, with Plante coming in second in that category. Large accelerated filers were fairly evenly distributed, with a large number of firms grabbing one apiece, and Top 10 Firm Crowe grabbing two.
Large accelerated filers Firm Wins Losses Net wins Crowe 2 0 2 BDO USA 1 0 1 RSM US 1 0 1 Ernst Young 1 1 0 PwC 1 1 0 TR Chadha Co. 1 1 0 Accelerated filers Firm Wins Losses Net wins Plante Moran 8 0 8 Grant Thornton 3 0 3 RBSM 2 0 2 RSM US 2 0 2 Haynie Co. 1 0 1 Heaton Co. 1 0 1 BDO USA 1 1 0 Non-accelerated filers Firm Wins Losses Net wins Plante Moran 10 0 10 Marcum 3 1 2 Prager Metis CPAs 2 0 2 Ernst Young 2 0 2 BDO USA 1 0 1 BF Borgers CPA 1 0 1 Centurion ZD CPA 1 0 1 GC Associates CPAs 1 0 1 MaloneBailey 1 0 1 Moore Stephens CPA 1 0 1 Porter Keadle Moore 1 0 1 RBSM 1 0 1 Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger Guttilla 1 0 1 SR Snodgrass 1 0 1 WWC PC CPAs 1 0 1 Smaller reporting companies Firm Wins Losses Net wins Prager Metis CPAs 24 0 24 Plante Moran 14 0 14 MK CPAS 7 1 6 AJ Robbins CPA 2 0 2 dbbmckennon 2 0 2 Kaufman Rossin 2 0 2 Total Asia Associates 2 0 2 Turner Stone Co. 2 0 2 Wei Wei Co 2 0 2
Ranked by net gain. Ties are broken by overall number of client wins, then by alphabetical order.
Sheer client size helped Big Four firm EY top two other categories: new market capitalization audited and new assets audited. One client – home builder D.R. Horton accounted for $13.2 billion of EY’s $13.6 billion in new market cap audited, as well as $14.1 billion of its $21.7 billion of new assets audited (natural gas distributor WGL Holding contributed another $7 billion). Plante Moran did lead in terms of new audit fees, with $7.4 million, with EY in a close second, with $6.2 million in new fees.
Accounting firm Net new engagements New engagements Market cap audited Ernst Young 1 3 $ 13,632,783,054 Plante Moran 33 33 $ 3,560,977,832 RSM US 2 3 $ 2,923,911,194 TR Chadha Co. 0 1 $ 2,494,506,919 PwC -2 1 $ 2,303,731,507 Crowe 3 3 $ 1,750,738,623 BDO USA 3 4 $ 1,159,046,625 Prager Metis CPAs 26 26 $ 969,339,210 Grant Thornton 2 3 $ 490,423,606 Jimmy P Lee CPA 1 1 $ 405,393,608 Accounting firm Net new engagements New engagements Assets audited Ernst Young 1 3 $ 21,742,410,399 Crowe 3 3 $ 11,521,650,000 PwC -2 1 $ 5,172,739,000 Plante Moran 33 33 $ 4,316,427,457 Grant Thornton 2 3 $ 3,341,962,000 RSM US 2 3 $ 1,910,405,360 BDO USA 3 4 $ 1,796,222,000 TR Chadha Co 0 1 $ 1,113,013,000 Prager Metis CPAs 26 26 $ 167,348,291 WSRP 1 1 $ 141,523,694 Accounting firm Net new engagements New engagements Audit fees Plante Moran 33 33 $ 7,393,717 Ernst Young 1 3 $ 6,177,210 Grant Thornton 2 3 $ 4,349,788 BDO USA 3 4 $ 3,785,400 PwC -2 1 $ 3,148,180 Crowe 3 3 $ 2,861,482 RSM US 2 3 $ 1,247,854 Marcum 2 8 $ 1,028,813 Prager Metis CPAs 26 26 $ 738,447 TR Chadha Co 0 1 $ 610,000
Data for the quarterly rankings are provided by Audit Analytics, a premium online intelligence service delivering audit, regulatory and disclosure analysis. Reach them at (508) 476-7007, info@auditanalytics.com or www.auditanalytics.com.
OVERALL NET ENGAGEMENT LEADERS
Accounting firm Net new engagements New engagements Plante Moran* 33 33 Prager Metis CPAs* 26 26 MK CPAS 7 8 BDO USA 3 4 Crowe 3 3 Marcum 2 8 Haynie Co. 2 4 Grant Thornton 2 3 RSM US 2 3 AJ Robbins CPA 2 2 BF Borgers CPA 2 2 dbbmckennon 2 2 Heaton Co. 2 2 Kaufman Rossin Co. 2 2 Total Asia Associates 2 2 Turner Stone Co. 2 2 Wei Wei Co 2 2 RBSM 1 4 Ernst Young 1 3 Liggett Webb 1 2 WWC CPAs 1 2 Boyle CPA 1 1 Buckley Dodds 1 1 Centurion ZD CPA 1 1 Daszkal Bolton 1 1 GC Associates CPAs 1 1 Halperin Ilanit CPA 1 1 Hoberman Lesser CPAs 1 1 Jimmy P Lee CPA 1 1 JLKZ CPA 1 1 Jorgensen Co. 1 1 KLiCHS 1 1 LBB Associates Ltd 1 1 Moore Stephens CPA Ltd. 1 1 Pinnacle Accountancy Group of Utah 1 1 Porter Keadle Moore 1 1 Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger Guttilla 1 1 Semple Marchal Cooper 1 1 Simon Edward 1 1 SR Snodgrass 1 1 Tama Budaj Raab 1 1 Thayer O’Neal Co. 1 1 Wolf Co. 1 1 WSRP 1 1 Accell Audit Compliance 0 1 Benjamin Young 0 1 Centurion ZD CPA Ltd. (Inactive) 0 1 Fruci Associates II 0 1 TR Chadha Co 0 1
Ranked by net engagements; ties are broken by lower number of new engagements, then by alphabetical order. * New engagements include significant gains from the same previous auditor, often an indication of a merger or other change in firm structure, or that some of the new engagements have a corporate affiliation, as with Plante Moran, which added 30 new clients from merger with EKSH.