BDO USA's November 2025 acquisition of Mississippi-based Top 100 Firm Horne helped it bring on the most new Securities and Exchange Commission audit clients in the fourth quarter of the year.
Nine of the Top 10 Firm's 10 new clients came from Horne, in a quarter that was slightly slower in terms of onboarding fresh audit clients. (See "
Fellow Top 10 Firm CBIZ came a close second, netting eight clients from 11 new engagements; a couple of those came from Marcum, which merged into CBIZ in late 2024, but the rest came from a variety of other previous auditors. (See "
New SEC client leaders
It was another good quarter for Big Four firm KPMG, which took the top spot on two of our league tables — for new market capitalization audited, and for new audit fees. Of its $11.5 billion in market cap, $5.7 billion came from Moog Inc., a maker of precision control instruments (and not to be confused with Moog Music Inc., of synthesizer fame), and another $3.7 billion from data center operator Iren Ltd. Its $11 million in new audit fees were fairly evenly split across a range of clients. (See "
Big Four firm PwC came in second for new audit cap, with $3.9 billion, almost entirely thanks to diversified management investment company DNP Select High Income Fund. CBIZ took second for new audit fees, from a range of clients, with the largest contributor being Canadian liquor retailer and cannabis company SNDL Inc., with $2.98 million.
Meanwhile, BDO came in tops in terms of new assets audited, thanks almost entirely to Renasant Corp., the parent of Renasant Bank in the Southeast, which accounted for $18 billion of the firm's total $21 billion. KPMG came in second here, with fully half of its $14.7 billion in new assets — $7.2 billion — coming from Pathward Financial, a banking and financial services institution.
Data for the quarterly rankings are provided by Ideagen Audit Analytics, a premium online intelligence service delivering audit, regulatory and disclosure analysis. Reach them at (508) 476-7007,
