Stocks in Motion: Kroll on a Roll; H-P Rallies

Updated from 12:42 p.m. EDT

Kroll(KROL) raced to the top of the leader board Wednesday in more than one way. It was one of the biggest percentage gainers and one of the most heavily traded stocks after the risk consulting company agreed to be acquired by insurance broker Marsh & McLennan (MMC) in an all-cash deal for $1.9 billion, or $37 a share.

The price of the deal represents a 31.7% premium above Tuesday's closing price of $28.10. Shares of Kroll traded up $8.46, or 30.1%, to $36.56, on volume of 30.5 million shares.

"The addition of Kroll will broaden and deepen the capabilities of our fast-growing, risk consulting and advisory businesses by adding services clients need to reduce the impact of an adverse event. Kroll has multiple high-growth businesses under a strong brand," Marsh & McLennan CEO Jeffrey Greenberg said in a press release.

"It expands our capacity in several important sectors that complement our existing businesses, such as corporate restructuring, business intelligence and investigations, security services, employee screening and electronic evidence and litigation support," the release said.

The company expects the transaction to close during the third quarter and says the acquisition will be accretive to earnings in 2005.

Applied Materials(AMAT) traded actively after the company announced strong second-quarter earnings and sales.

Applied earned 22 cents a share on an 82% jump in revenue, which increased to $2.02 billion during the second quarter vs. $1.11 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were looking for the company to earn 19 cents a share on revenue of $1.89 billion.

"Investment in 300 [millimeter] semiconductor equipment for leading-edge technology, combined with capacity purchases of our 200mm systems, drove Applied Materials' strong revenue and order growth this quarter," the company said in a press release.