Dividend Spike: One Liberty Properties

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of commercial REIT operator One Liberty Properties(OLP) are among the biggest gainers on Tuesday, after the company announced that it was reinstating a cash dividend.

One Liberty shares were up more than 21% in the first hour of trading on Wednesday, for a gain of $2.26 to $12.61.

Trading in the REIT shares was astronomical as compared with One Liberty's very thin average daily volume of 27,000 shares traded. More than 250,000 shares of One Liberty Properties were traded within the first hour of the market open on Tuesday.

One Liberty Properties declared a cash dividend of 30 cents, payable to shareholders on April 6. The reinstated dividend represents a 36% increase over quarterly dividends paid in 2009.

One Liberty had moved to a dividend that combined cash and common stock in 2009 due to short-term cash management considerations.

One Liberty CEO Patrick Callan said, "business has stabilized, and we look forward to being proactive in 2010 in the acquisition area, as evidenced by our purchase in February of this year of a 194,000 square foot shopping center located in suburban Philadelphia for $23.5 million."

One Liberty Properties also announced fourth-quarter revenues slightly ahead of street consensus of $9.5 million, at $9.8 million in revenues for the final quarter of 2009.

For a look at TheStreet.com's dividend coverage, click TheStreet dividends.

-- Reported by Eric Rosenbaum in New York.

Follow TheStreet.com on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

>To order reprints of this article, click here: Reprints