The board of directors for CubeSmart, a self-storage real estate investment trust, declared a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share on the companys common stock for the fourth quarter of 2011. The dividend is payable on Jan. 15 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Jan. 1.

The quarterly distribution represents an annualized dividend rate of $0.32 per share, a 14 percent increase from the previous annual rate of $0.28 per share. The board also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.3929 for the 7.75 percent Series A Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Shares payable on Jan. 14 to holders of record on Jan. 1.

We are very confident that our success during 2011 in growing our occupancy and net operating income, improving the quality of our portfolio and strengthening our balance sheet will create strong growth in our free cash flow next year and beyond, said CEO Dean Jernigan. Our balanced dividend policy will continue to allow the company to retain internally generated funds that we intend to utilize as a component of funding for our external growth strategy."

CubeSmart owns or manages 473 facilities across the United States and operates the CubeSmart Network, which consists of approximately 877 additional self-storage facilities.