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 make up large portions of long-term returns, and in many cases, dividend contributions surpass one-third of total returns.Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc. In FocusBased in Archbold, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc. (FMAO) is in the Finance sector, and so far this year, shares have seen a price change of -18.46%. The company is paying out a dividend of $0.21 per share at the moment, with a dividend yield of 3.14% compared to the Banks - Northeast industry's yield of 2.64% and the S&P 500's yield of 1.84%.Looking at dividend growth, the company's current annualized dividend of $0.84 is up 18.3% from last year. In the past five-year period, Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc. has increased its dividend 5 times on a year-over-year basis for an average annual increase of 9.09%. 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. Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc.'s current payout ratio is 30%, meaning it paid out 30% of its trailing 12-month EPS as dividend.Earnings growth looks solid for FMAO for this fiscal year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2022 is $2.66 per share, which represents a year-over-year growth rate of 16.67%.Bottom LineInvestors like dividends for a variety of different reasons, from tax advantages and decreasing overall portfolio risk to considerably improving stock investing profits. It's important to keep in mind that not all companies provide a quarterly payout.High-growth firms or tech start-ups, for example, rarely provide their shareholders a dividend, while larger, more established companies that have more secure profits are often seen as the best dividend options. Income investors must be conscious of the fact that high-yielding stocks tend to struggle during periods of rising interest rates. That said, they can take comfort from the fact that FMAO is not only an attractive dividend play, but is also a compelling investment opportunity with a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). 5 Stocks Set to Double Each was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2021. Previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%. Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>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 Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc. (FMAO): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research