Central Pacific Financial Corp. (NYSE:CPF) will pay a dividend of $0.26 on the 16th of December. This means that the annual payment will be 3.8% of the current stock price, which is in line with the average for the industry.

See our latest analysis for Central Pacific Financial

While it is always good to see a solid dividend yield, we should also consider whether the payment is feasible.

Having distributed dividends for at least 10 years, Central Pacific Financial has a long history of paying out a part of its earnings to shareholders. Past distributions do not necessarily guarantee future ones, but Central Pacific Financial's payout ratio of 49% is a good sign as this means that earnings decently cover dividends.

Over the next 3 years, EPS is forecast to expand by 49.8%. The future payout ratio could be 39% over that time period, according to analyst estimates, which is a good look for the future of the dividend.

Even over a long history of paying dividends, the company's distributions have been remarkably stable. Since 2014, the dividend has gone from $0.32 total annually to $1.04. This means that it has been growing its distributions at 13% per annum over that time. We can see that payments have shown some very nice upward momentum without faltering, which provides some reassurance that future payments will also be reliable.

Investors could be attracted to the stock based on the quality of its payment history. Unfortunately, Central Pacific Financial's earnings per share has been essentially flat over the past five years, which means the dividend may not be increased each year. The company has been growing at a pretty soft 0.1% per annum, and is paying out quite a lot of its earnings to shareholders. This isn't necessarily bad, but we wouldn't expect rapid dividend growth in the future.

Overall, we think that this is a great income investment, and we think that maintaining the dividend this year may have been a conservative choice. Earnings are easily covering distributions, and the company is generating plenty of cash. All in all, this checks a lot of the boxes we look for when choosing an income stock.

Investors generally tend to favour companies with a consistent, stable dividend policy as opposed to those operating an irregular one. Meanwhile, despite the importance of dividend payments, they are not the only factors our readers should know when assessing a company. See if management have their own wealth at stake, by checking insider shareholdings in Central Pacific Financial stock. Looking for more high-yielding dividend ideas? Try our collection of strong dividend payers.