Tesla stock 'gets boring' as the market drills into the EV's company metrics and treats it more like a traditional automaker, investment research firm says

• Tesla stock "gets boring," Bespoke Investment Group said after the EV maker's update.
• Wall Street's expectations for Tesla look more like those for a traditional carmaker and less like a disruptor, it said.

"Tesla Gets Boring."

That was the determination of Bespoke Investment Group on Thursday as Wall Street analysts drilled down on the mechanics of Tesla's $10 trillion plan to foster global sustainability while ramping up sales of electric vehicles.

Tesla stock fell as much as 8% to a one-month low on Thursday as investors appeared to be let down by a lack of details from CEO Elon Musk about new EV models.

Instead, the company's "Master Plan Part 3" presentation on Wednesday revealed a factory is coming to Mexico and that Tesla is working on halving production costs to sell 20 million electric vehicles a year by 2030.

"With investors and analyst coverage focused on more concrete metrics and timelines, expectations for TSLA are being pushed to behave more like a traditional [original equipment manufacturer] and less like a disruptor," Bespoke wrote.

"On average, the rolling 1-year correlation of daily percentage changes for TSLA compared to other major OEM stocks like Ford, General Motors, Stellantis and Toyota has risen to the highest levels since at least 2016," it said.

"In other words, the market is treating TSLA more and more like just another automaker."

Despite the latest sell-off, Tesla stock is still up more than 50% so far this year, while GM is up 16% and Ford is up 6%.

Ken Mahoney, CEO of Mahoney Asset Management, in a note Thursday said retail investors owned about 41% of Tesla as of December while Musk held 14% or 446 million shares.

"Musk is a wild character; it's a very volatile stock largely due to him," he said, pointing to last year's 60% price plunge in part as Musk sold shares of the EV maker to fund his Twitter takeover.

About Tesla's update: "Some key takeaways, in general, are that [Tesla is] still in the rapid growth phase, in our opinion," Mahoney said.