Institutional Research Note, page-19

An independent report would have some form of disclaimer stating that it's been been prepared independent of the company. e.g. In the 2018 BLK annual report, RSM Australia partners included a letter confirming their status as independent auditors of the BLK financial report.

Hopefully you read the Disclaimer on page 37 of the ARC report for BLK, but just in case you didn't, a few of the pertinent points are quoted below:

"Alternative Resource Capital has been contractually engaged and paid by Blackham Resources to produce this marketing communication..."

"This document is a marketing communication & not independent research...."

"Alternative Resource Capital or its employees may have a position in the securities and derivatives of the companies researched and this may impair the objectivity of this report...."

Company sponsored marketing reports are like drug studies sponsored by pharmaceutical companies: it's always to the upside. For example, Roche spruiked Tamiflu as being effective against influenza, but when independent studies investigated the pharmaceutical company trial data, Tamiflu was found to be ineffective against influenza & more like an expensive form of aspirin.

There's sub-value in company sponsored reports (stock marketing or other).