All investors love getting big returns from their portfolio, whether it's through stocks, bonds, ETFs, or other types of securities. But when you're an income investor, your primary focus is generating consistent cash flow from each of your liquid investments.Cash flow can come from bond interest, interest from other types of investments, and of course, dividends. A dividend is the distribution of a company's earnings paid out to shareholders; it's often viewed by its dividend yield, a metric that measures a dividend as a percent of the current stock price. Many academic studies show that dividends account for significant portions of long-term returns, with dividend contributions exceeding one-third of total returns in many cases.Rocky Brands in FocusBased in Nelsonville, Rocky Brands (RCKY) is in the Consumer Discretionary sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of -15.43%. The footwear company is paying out a dividend of $0.28 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 2.25% compared to the Shoes and Retail Apparel industry's yield of 1.1% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.98%.Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.56 is up 3.7% from last year. In the past five-year period, Rocky Brands has increased its dividend 3 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 5.43%. Looking ahead, future dividend growth will be dependent on earnings growth and payout ratio, which is the proportion of a company's annual earnings per share that it pays out as a dividend. Rocky Brands's current payout ratio is 25%, meaning it paid out 25% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.Looking at this fiscal year, RCKY expects solid earnings growth. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2020 is $2.30 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 1.32%.Bottom LineFrom greatly improving stock investing profits and reducing overall portfolio risk to providing tax advantages, investors like dividends for a variety of different reasons. But, not every company offers a quarterly payout.For instance, it's a rare occurrence when a tech start-up or big growth business offers their shareholders a dividend. It's more common to see larger companies with more established profits give out dividends. Income investors have to be mindful of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. With that in mind, RCKY presents a compelling investment opportunity; it's not only an attractive dividend play, but the stock also boasts a strong Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Rocky Brands, Inc. (RCKY): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here.