The 36% fall in first-quarter earnings left its latest adjusted earnings below the average analyst estimate of 26 cents a share, according to Bloomberg News. Its report also noted that the 51-year-old Moynihan had sought to assure investors that the bank is on the path to recovery after last year's $2.2 billion net loss.

The deficit was driven by $12.4 billion in mortgage and credit-card unit writedowns, most of them tied to loans and takeovers that predate his promotion to CEO in January, 2010. Bank of America set aside about $3 billion to settle some disputed home loans last year, and shunted almost half of its 13.9 million mortgages into a "bad" bank unit designed to clean up or dispose of underperformers.

"This could be the first clue that some of Moynihan's management strategies are starting to take root," Greg Donaldson, chairman of Evansville, Ind.-based Donaldson Capital Management, told Bloomberg. "Bank of America is valuable, everybody knows that. The problem has been their legacy issues."

Bank of America shares have fallen 32% in the past year as of yesterday to $13.13, the worst performance in the 24-company KBW Bank Index, on concern that claims from investors and homeowners for faulty mortgages and foreclosures will cost more than Moynihan has budgeted. Most of the firm's retail and investment-banking operations other than mortgage lending will return to so-called normalized earnings next year, Moynihan said in a March 8 conference.