Its previous quarterly dividend was 27 cents per share and is equivalent to $1.12 per share on an annualized basis.

Equity One, which dramatically increased in size earlier this year when it acquired IRT Property of Atlanta, mainly acquires, renovates, develops and manages neighborhood and community shopping centers that are anchored by supermarket chains as well as other necessity-oriented retailers, including drug stores and discount retail stores.

The REIT owns 181 properties consisting of 19.5 million sf mostly in southern US metropolitan areas. These include 125 supermarket-anchored shopping centers, nine drug store-anchored centers, 40 other retail-anchored centers, two commercial properties and five retail projects. In addition, the REIT has non-controlling interests in three unconsolidated joint ventures.