meaning of "suggest"

Richard X. Bove, an analyst at Punk Ziegel & Company, noted the trend in a recent note to investors and suggested that the reason was strong buying from portfolios that use computer models to buy and sell quickly, a practice known as program trading, or a foreign source like the investment arm of the Chinese government.

1. To offer for consideration or action; propose: suggest things for children to do; suggested that we take a walk.
2. To bring or call to mind by logic or association; evoke: a cloud that suggests a mushroom; a ringlike symbol suggesting unity.
3. To make evident indirectly; intimate or imply: a silence that suggested disapproval.4. To serve as or provide a motive for; prompt or demand: Such a crime suggests apt punishment.