November 4, 2015

Back for a third year of audit fee data. I’ve pulled together information on fees paid by the 100 largest of the Fortune 500 companies (“Fortune 100”). I’m presenting it two ways;

Sorted by Fortune 100 ranking (see table below) Sorted by audit fees (see here).

Here’s the executive summary:

Audit fees vary widely, ranging from $2.2 million (INTL FCStone) to $100.9 million (Bank of America)*

When ranked by audit fees paid, 6 of the top 10 companies are in the financial services sector

The Big4 firms audit 99% of the Fortune 100; PwC audits 35 of 100, EY 27, Deloitte 22, KPMG 15, and non-Big4 Grant Thornton audits 1

In terms of audit fee dollars, PwC got 43%, Deloitte 23%, EY 21%, and KPMG 13%

Pfizer saw the biggest drop in audit fees year over year, decreasing nearly $17 million, or 38%

* This is the third year in a row that INTL FCStone and BofA have ranked lowest and highest, respectively, in fees paid to auditors.

And before wading into the table, you should know:

the information in the first four columns comes from the Fortune website

the information in the Auditor, Audit, Audit-Related, Tax, and All Other columns comes from SEC filings (usually a 14A proxy statement) and relates to fiscal years (not necessarily calendar years).

this year I’m including data for Audit-related, tax, and all other fees paid to auditors

Strap in, here we go:

2014 Audit Fees Fortune 100 Rank Company Revenues Market Cap at 3/31/15 Auditor Audit Audit-related, Tax, and All other Total /———$ billion——–/ /————–$ million————/ 1 Wal-Mart Stores 485.7 265.3 EY 17.0 2.1 19.1 2 Exxon Mobil 382.6 356.5 PwC 27.3 5.9 33.2 3 Chevron 203.8 197.4 PwC 27.2 3.3 30.5 4 Berkshire Hathaway 194.7 357.3 Deloitte 32.5 3.0 35.5 5 Apple 182.8 724.8 EY 10.3 2.0 12.3 6 General Motors 155.9 60.4 Deloitte 36.0 15.0 51.0 7 Phillips 66 149.4 42.6 EY 11.6 1.3 12.9 8 General Electric 148.3 249.8 KPMG 78.2 12.9 91.1 9 Ford Motor 144.1 64.2 PwC 37.8 10.0 47.8 10 CVS Caremark 139.4 117.2 EY 8.8 2.5 11.3 11 McKesson 138.0 52.7 Deloitte 11.1 7.4 18.5 12 AT&T 132.4 169.5 EY 23.3 12.4 35.7 13 Valero Energy 130.8 32.7 KPMG 7.0 0.4 7.4 14 UnitedHealth Group 130.5 112.8 Deloitte 16.1 4.6 20.7 15 Verizon Communications 127.1 198.4 EY 26.5 13.1 39.6 16 AmerisourceBergen 119.6 25.0 EY 6.1 2.8 8.9 17 Fannie Mae 116.5 2.7 Deloitte 33.3 0.2 33.5 18 Costco Wholesale 112.6 66.7 KPMG 5.7 1.1 6.8 19 Hewlett-Packard 111.5 56.6 EY 30.0 20.5 50.5 20 Kroger 108.5 37.6 PwC 5.2 0.9 6.1 21 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. 102.1 225.9 PwC 60.3 30.6 90.9 22 Express Scripts Holding 100.9 63.2 PwC 3.4 1.3 4.7 23 Bank of America Corp. 95.2 161.9 PwC 82.2 18.7 100.9 24 International Business Machines 94.1 158.6 PwC 35.0 41.2 76.2 25 Marathon Petroleum 91.4 28.0 PwC 7.7 0.1 7.8 26 Cardinal Health 91.1 29.8 EY 5.5 3.5 9.0 27 Boeing 90.8 105.0 Deloitte 26.4 0.2 26.6 28 Citigroup 90.6 156.3 KPMG 65.3 33.7 99.0 29 Amazon.com 89.0 172.8 EY 9.8 0.9 10.7 30 Wells Fargo 88.4 279.9 KPMG 37.9 9.3 47.2 31 Microsoft 86.8 333.5 Deloitte 28.2 18.1 46.3 32 Procter & Gamble 84.5 221.3 Deloitte 31.6 7.3 38.9 33 Home Depot 83.2 148.5 KPMG 4.8 0.7 5.5 34 Archer Daniels Midland 81.2 29.8 EY 14.8 3.1 17.9 35 Walgreen 76.4 92.4 Deloitte 4.5 3.6 8.1 36 Target 74.5 52.7 EY 5.9 2.7 8.6 37 Johnson & Johnson 74.3 279.7 PwC 36.1 18.3 54.4 38 Anthem 73.9 41.2 EY 11.9 2.3 14.2 39 MetLife 73.3 56.6 Deloitte 71.4 10.4 81.8 40 Google 71.5 377.5 EY 13.9 7.0 20.9 41 State Farm Insurance Cos. 71.2 * PwC * * * 42 Freddie Mac 69.4 1.5 PwC 28.0 2.8 30.8 43 Comcast 68.8 143.5 Deloitte 16.0 7.2 23.2 44 PepsiCo 66.7 141.7 KPMG 25.3 3.3 28.6 45 United Technologies 65.1 106.5 PwC 42.1 25.0 67.1 46 American International Group 64.4 74.2 PwC 66.3 33.9 100.2 47 United Parcel Service 58.2 87.5 Deloitte 13.6 1.8 15.4 48 Dow Chemical 58.2 55.5 Deloitte 23.2 15.7 38.9 49 Aetna 58.0 37.1 KPMG 14.9 1.7 16.6 50 Lowe’s 56.2 70.8 Deloitte 3.1 0.9 4.0 51 ConocoPhillips 56.0 76.7 EY 14.1 2.5 16.6 52 Intel 55.9 148.1 EY 17.8 3.1 20.9 53 Energy Transfer Equity 55.7 34.1 Grant Thornton 8.5 1.0 9.5 54 Caterpillar 55.2 48.5 PwC 32.7 25.5 58.2 55 Prudential Financial 54.1 36.5 PwC 47.0 6.0 53.0 56 Pfizer 49.6 213.6 KPMG 32.4 8.2 40.6 57 Walt Disney 48.8 178.3 PwC 18.6 6.2 24.8 58 Humana 48.5 26.6 PwC 6.9 1.8 8.7 59 Enterprise Products Partners 48.0 67.4 Deloitte 4.7 – 4.7 60 Cisco Systems 47.1 140.5 PwC 20.7 7.5 28.2 61 Sysco 46.5 22.3 EY 5.2 3.7 8.9 62 Ingram Micro 46.5 3.9 PwC 9.2 0.8 10.0 63 Coca-Cola 46.0 177.1 EY 29.0 10.6 39.6 64 Lockheed Martin 45.6 64.2 EY 16.9 4.4 21.3 65 FedEx 45.6 46.9 EY 14.3 2.0 16.3 66 Johnson Controls 43.9 33.2 PwC 23.5 14.5 38.0 67 Plains GP Holdings 43.5 17.4 PwC 4.7 1.9 6.6 68 World Fuel Services 43.4 4.1 PwC 4.7 0.1 4.8 69 CHS 44.5 – PwC 3.7 1.4 5.1 70 American Airlines 42.7 36.8 KPMG 6.8 2.7 9.5 71 Merck 42.2 163.2 PwC 28.9 18.5 47.4 72 Best Buy 41.9 13.3 Deloitte 3.1 1.2 4.3 73 Delta Air Lines 40.4 37.1 EY 3.6 1.4 5.0 74 Honeywell International 40.3 81.4 PwC 23.0 6.3 29.3 75 HCA Holdings 40.1 31.6 EY 8.3 6.4 14.7 76 Goldman Sachs Group 40.1 81.9 PwC 53.5 10.2 63.7 77 Tesoro 40.1 11.5 EY 4.1 0.2 4.3 78 Liberty Mutual Insurance Group 39.8 * EY * * * 79 United Continental Holdings 38.9 25.8 EY 3.8 0.8 4.6 80 New York Life Insurance 38.7 * PwC * * * 81 Oracle 38.3 188.4 EY 23.4 1.6 25.0 82 Morgan Stanley 38.0 70.5 Deloitte 49.0 8.6 57.6 83 Tyson Foods 37.6 15.6 PwC 4.5 1.4 5.9 84 Safeway 36.6 * Deloitte * * * 85 Nationwide 36.3 * KPMG * * * 86 Deere 36.1 29.8 Deloitte 15.8 0.7 16.6 87 DuPont 36.0 64.7 PwC * * * 88 American Express 36.0 79.6 PwC 21.3 4.7 26.0 89 Allstate 35.2 29.6 Deloitte 9.3 0.9 10.2 90 CIGNA 34.9 33.5 PwC 10.8 2.3 13.1 91 Mondelez International 34.2 59.2 PwC 16.0 5.1 21.1 92 TIAA-CREF 34.2 * PwC * * * 93 INTL FCStone 34.1 0.6 KPMG 2.2 – 2.2 94 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance 33.6 * KPMG * * * 95 DIRECTV 33.3 42.8 Deloitte ** ** ** 96 Halliburton 32.9 37.3 KPMG 11.8 4.2 16.0 97 Twenty-First Century Fox 31.9 71.9 EY 17.5 17.3 34.8 98 3M 31.8 104.8 PwC 15.9 3.9 19.8 99 Sears Holdings 31.2 4.4 Deloitte 7.5 4.8 12.3 100 General Dynamics 30.9 44.8 KPMG 18.0 4.2 22.2

* Unable to locate a filing with audit fee data for this company. If you know where to find the information, let me know (hit me up on Twitter @auditorcarousel).

** DIrecTV acquired by AT&T

Still with me? Page 2 is where things get more interesting. It’s audit fee data sorted in descending order so you can easily see who pays the most.