Bank of America’s first-quarter profit and revenue rose, but shares tumbled Wednesday, April 17 as the banking giant continues to struggle in a lackluster economic environment with low interest rates, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Although the bank was able to cut $1 billion in expenses, loan growth showed signs of sluggishness. The bank saw lower net interest income, or the money it makes off loans, as borrowers took less money from the bank than they did a year earlier. The net interest margin—a measure of the bank's lending profitability—fell to 2.43% from 2.51% in the year-earlier period. The results show that while the bank has been able to reduce its expenses, signs of growth amid chronically low interest rates and an ebbing mortgage market are hazy.

Shares fell 2.9% to $11.90 in recent premarket trading. Through Tuesday's close the stock has climbed 38% in the past 12 months.

The bank noted results were driven by increased brokerage income, higher investment-banking fees, and improved credit quality, partially offset by lower mortgage-banking income and lower net gains on the sales of debt securities.

Bank of America reported a profit of $2.62 billion versus a profit of $653 million a year earlier. On a per-share basis, which includes the payment of preferred dividends, the bank reported a profit of 20 cents versus a profit of three cents a year earlier. The latest quarter included $893 million of pretax annual expense associated with retirement-eligible stock compensation costs.

The year-earlier period included, among other items, a $4.8 billion pretax hit tied to changes in the value of the bank's debt.

Revenue rose 5.5% to $23.5 billion.

The consumer real-estate division—which includes mortgage banking—reported it had widened its loss to $1.31 billion versus a year-earlier loss of $1.14 billion.

Like many banks, Bank of America has been cutting costs to offset falling revenue. In the first quarter, noninterest expense fell 5.2% from a year earlier and fell 1.1% from the fourth quarter, to $18.15 billion. The bank said in late 2011 that it planned to cut 30,000 jobs as part of a program expected to reduce costs by $8 billion a year by mid-2015.

Credit-loss provisions were $1.71 billion, compared with $2.42 billion a year earlier and $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter. The reduction in the allowance for loan reserves was $804 million. Net charge-offs were 1.14% from 1.8% a year ago and 1.4% in the prior quarter. Litigation expense was $881 million versus $793 million a year ago.

Bank of America's core consumer and business banking arm—which consist of its bread-and-butter branch banking and makes loans to small businesses—reported its profit was down 4.4% from the year earlier to $1.38 billion.

Meanwhile, the global banking arm's profit fell 15% to $1.34 billion. Global Banking investment-banking fees, excluding self-led deals, increased 21% to $762 million from the year ago.

Global markets reported a profit of $1.36 billion, up 64% from the year earlier.

Total loans and leases rose 1% from a year earlier to $911.59 billion.