BANKING / FINANCE : CommerceBancorp to Buy Back Stocks with $1-Million Fund

Directors of CommerceBancorp, the holding company for CommerceBank in Newport Beach, think their company’s stock is undervalued. So they approved a plan to spend up to $1 million to buy back the firm’s common stock at $10.25 a share and, thus, bolster the stock price.

If the company spends the whole amount, it would buy and retire 4.6% of the company’s common stock outstanding.

At the end of June, the company’s book value--a major indication of the company’s worth--was $11.82 a share, and that amount is likely to go up once profits are announced for the third quarter, ending Sept. 30.

But the stock was trading at only $10.25 a share Sept. 14 on the National Market System of the National Assn. of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation stock exchange.

CommerceBank is the county’s largest independent bank, with $322 million in assets at the end of June.