Alignments like these 4 stars are very common and usually quite meaningless as they are just coincidental. When working in the Milky Way as this image does, there are so many stars such accidental alignments are to be expected. I find nothing to indicate these are anything but such a coincidental alignment.

Only the top star has a catalog listing other than that of the Hubble Guide Star Catalog/Tycho catalog. It is SAO 114695 at magnitude 9.1. Below it is GSC 153:2491 at magnitude 11.9. Below that is GSC 153:1480 at magnitude 10.3 and the bottom star is GSC 153:1814 at magnitude 9.8. Only GSC 153:1480 has a parallax measurement. That puts it at about 58 light-years. I find nothing in the literature connecting these stars in any way. Most studies looking for exo-planets are based on the summer sky. Only a very few have been found in the winter sky as it hasn't had the massive Kepler type study made here due to the winter Milky way being less dense than the summer Milky Way. I find nothing to indicate these stars or any other in the field have been studied for such planets.

Rick