September 20, 2009

CRB stock spikes

By Kathy Ursprung
The Chronicle

     Columbia Bancorp’s stock prices more than doubled Friday on heavy trading and chief executive Terry Cochran says he’s at a loss to explain why.
     “All I can say is we’ve had a number of calls and we’re monitoring the thing,” Cochran said shortly after market close Friday. “We’ve made no announcements of any current things that would cause it to go up or down.”
     More than 2 million shares of Columbia Bancorp (CBBO) stock traded Friday, compared to Cochran’s rough estimate of 25,000 or 30,000 shares daily on average. Share price skyrocketed from $1.25 at open to $2.59 at close, with the highest trading price at $3.44 per share.
     Cochran said his sister-in-law woke him early with first word of the unusual activity. Friday he received many calls from shareholders wondering what was
happening.
     “That’s huge activity,” Cochran said. “I can’t give you any information that would support that kind of activity. I will wait with you and see what, if anything, comes of it.”
     Cochran said this isn’t the first time Columbia Bancorp stock has seen unusual trading.
     “A few months back, it seems like we had a lot of activity,” he said. “I even had a all from NASDAQ wondering what was going on.”
NASDAQ does monitor unusual trading, he said.
     “They’ll probably check all the chat rooms and rumor mills,” Cochran said. “In some cases, people might intentionally try to do something to our stock. NASDAQ wants to know.”
     Cochran said he will monitor the situation over the coming days to see what develops.
     Columbia Bancorp is the parent company of Columbia River Bank.