The market for auditing services shifts from year to year as companies go public, go private, get acquired, and change auditors, all of which may influence the fees that the Big Four and their competitors charge for services. How much do you know about the current state of public companies and their auditors? Take our quiz to find out
1. How many publicly held companies are there in the United States?*
A. 6,167
B. 7,246
C. 8,035
D. 12,498
2. How does that compare with the number of such companies a year ago?
A. Up 2.7%
B. Down 2.7%
C. Down 4.5%
D. Up 4.5%
3. What percentage of the companies are audited by one of the six largest auditing firms?
A. 45.7%
B. 63.5%
C. 74.8%
D. 55.6%
4. Which of these auditing firms is NOT among the six largest in the United States?
A. KPMG
B. Crowe Horwath
C. Grant Thornton
D. BDO USA
5. How many U.S. “large accelerated filers” (public float of more than $750 million) are there?
A. 2,235
B. 1,960
C. 1,245
D. 2,788
6. Which firm audits the most U.S. public companies?
A. Deloitte
B. PricewaterhouseCoopers
C. KPMG
D. Ernst & Young
7. As a percentage of revenue, what were the average audit fees in fiscal 2017 for U.S. companies in the Russell 1000 with revenue of $10 million to $2 billion?
A. 0.25%
B. 0.32%
C. 0.19%
D. 0.15%
8. As a percentage of revenue, what were the average audit fees in fiscal 2017 for European companies in the EU 1000 with revenue of $10 million to $2 billion?
A. 0.25%
B. 0.32%
C. 0.19%
D. 0.15%
*Except as otherwise indicated, numbers are as of April 24, 2018
Source: Audit Analytics
Answers: 1-A; 2-C; 3-B; 4-B; 5-B; 6-D; 7-A; 8-C