One Liberty Properties Boosts Dividend 4.7%, Pays 6.8% Yield (OLP)

One Liberty Properties, Inc. boosted its quarterly dividend 4.7% and is rewarding its shareholders with an above-average yield of 6.8%.

In addition to the significant dividend yield, the company enhanced its annual dividend for the past six consecutive years and eight out of last nine years. The fund will distribute its next dividend payout in the first week of next year, on January 5, 2018, to all its shareholders of record before the December 21, 2017, ex-dividend date.

One Liberty Properties, Inc. (NYSE:OLP)

Founded in December 1982 and based in Great Neck, New York, One Liberty Properties, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT). The trust’s primary business is acquisition, ownership and management of a geographically diversified portfolio of commercial real estate properties. The company’s property portfolio includes retail furniture stores, as well as health and fitness, industrial, offices, flexible purpose and other properties.

To avoid income and expense fluctuations, the REIT manages all its leases under “triple net” lease terms. Under these terms, the tenants are responsible for real estate taxes and insurance, as well as all ordinary maintenance and repairs. As of November 2017, the company owned 119 properties in 30 states with a total rentable space of more than 10 million square feet. In terms of square footage, the industrial and retail properties account for 90% of the REITs portfolio.

The REITs share price declined more than 11% from $25.17 on December 7, 2016, to $22.35 by March 22, 2017. After a quick 12% jump over the following month, the share price hit nearly $25 by April 26, 2017, but immediately reversed trend and gave up all the previous month’s gains. By the end of May, the share price dropped to its new 52-week low of $22.30. However, the share price did not remain long at the bottom. As quickly as it fell, the share price reversed direction, recovered to December 2016 levels by mid-October 2017 and continued to rise towards its new 52-week high of $27.08 on November 28, 2017. Since the November peak, the share price pulled back 2.2% and closed on December 7, 2017, at $26.48, which is 5.2% higher than it was 12 month ago. Additionally, the current share price is 18.7% above the May 31, 2017, 52-week low and nearly half of that growth – 46% – occurred in the last 30 days.

After lagging bellow the 200-day moving average (MA) since early March, the 50-day MA has been rising ever since it broke above the 20-day MA in a bullish manner on August 10, 2017, and is currently almost 5% higher than the 200-day MA, which is a technical indicator that the share should continue to rise in the near term.

The REIT enhanced its quarterly dividend amount 4.7% from the previous quarter’s $0.43 to the current $0.45 quarterly payout. This quarterly amount is equivalent to a $1.80 annualized distribution and a 6.8% yield. The current yield is 1.5% higher than the REITs own average yield over the past five years. Additionally, the funds current 6.8% yield outperformed the 3.9% average yield of the entire Financial sector by 74% and the 3.8% average yield of the Real Estate Development segment by 78%.

After more than a decade of inconsistent dividend payouts, One Liberty Properties started a trend of steadily rising annual dividends in 2010. The company boosted its annual dividend over the past six consecutive years and failed to hike its annual dividend only once in the past nine years. Over the current six-year consecutive dividend hike streak, the REIT grew its annual payout at an average rate of 5.3% per year. Over the past nine years, the average annual growth rate is even higher at 8.3%.

The shareholders combined total return of dividend income and rising share price was 16.6% over the past 12 months, 35% over the past three years and 79% over the past five years.

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