Earnings Signal

The bank's lower capital goal for 2013 may signal the company expects to earn less than it did just a few months earlier as the U.S. economy slows, said Goldberg, who has the equivalent of a "hold" recommendation. Chris Kotowski, an Oppenheimer & Co. analyst, didn't rule out a share sale in his June 30 research note.

"Bank of America's capital position relative to peers creates dilution risk," wrote Kotowski, who has a "market perform" recommendation on the lender. "While we aren't certain that an equity raise will actually happen, the risk is certainly there."

The lender may have to hoard cash until 2016 to reach the 9.5 percent capital goal, about three years behind rivals including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co., Kotowski said, even while those firms raise payouts and buy back shares.

Mortgage Costs

Moynihan has said at least twice this year that the firm won't need to issue common stock to meet the new capital threshold. Regulatory capital under existing international rules has steadily improved in the past two years, the company said last month.

The lender still faces more mortgage-related costs that may sap capital. The five largest servicers may pay more than $20 billion to settle probes by the U.S. Department of Justice and 50 state attorneys general over shoddy mortgage servicing practices, said two people briefed on the matter.

Bank of America may also have another $5 billion in costs tied to repurchase demands from institutional investors and could face other expenses related to securities and fraud allegations on soured Countrywide loans, the company said.

"Will the charges this quarter for all these mortgage settlements kind of be the end of it?," said Anton Schutz, the president of Mendon Capital Advisors Corp., an asset manager that specializes in the stocks of financial-services companies and owns Bank of America shares. "If it is, they can build capital really quickly. There's the constant fear that they need to raise capital, which I disagree with."

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